[quiet intro music plays]
[city sounds hum]
This is a doormat that Don sent us.
You know, normally people just send The Newharts,
but of course he had to have his name on it.
Best friends with the Rickles.
Even toward the end, the last, the last week
or 10 days, it was,
Keep my name alive.
And that’s what we’re doing today.
We’re keeping his name alive.
Somebody called me up and they said,
Look, Don Rickles is looking for a best friend
[audience laughs]
[Rickles laughs]
and none of us wanna do it. Would you?
[audience laughs]
And I said, How long?
They said, A year at the most.
[Rickles and audience laugh]
[lively piano music plays]
[Interviewer] And that, that’s you guys at Disneyland?
Disneyland. We went to,
that’s I think the Matterhorn behind us.
[Interviewer] Yeah.
And we were with Mickey,-
Mickey Mouse.
[Newhart] With our kids.
[Interviewer] Yeah.
And I remember [chuckles] Mickey came up
to Don and I and said,
You know how
God damn hot it is in this, in this suit?
We gotta walk around in the God damn suit all day long.
We’re going, Mickey, Mickey, the kinder. Sh, Mickey.
Oh, you can’t believe it, the kids grab you.
You can’t believe where these kids grab ya.
Mickey, Mickey.
Yes.
[both laugh]
I find this a little incongruous.
Your best friend is Bob Newhart.
I, I, I think another genius
and one of the great comedians of all time,
and I only say it’s a little incongruous
because your, your styles,
you’re both extremely nice, decent people in real life.
Thank you.
But your styles are so different.
Well, yeah. Bob’s a, a brainy kind of comedian
and I’m a kind of guy that gets laughs.
[audience laughs]
Sam, there’s not much I can say.
You’re an all around built-in dynamite little talent.
You’ve told me this time and time again.
[audience laughs]
The way you can improve your show is to get a little taller,
get rid of the funny eye, and get yourself a good job.
[audience and Davis laugh]
Hey, that’s what I do, my friends. I laugh at people.
I laugh at blacks, whites, purples. I laugh at all.
My whole humor. I came this far in America. Why?
‘Cause I laugh at what the heck we are.
That’s what we have to laugh at.
You’re a black man, right?
I took a guess.
[audience laughs]
I’ll tell you this.
I found Don just fascinating as opposed to what I did.
I don’t know how many of you men know this,
but the cod fish holds the record
for the most Japanese tonnage sunk-
[audience chuckles]
being comprised of five freighters
and 15 aircraft carriers.
A truly enviable record.
Unfortunately, they were sunk in 1954.
[audience laughs]
However, it stands as the
largest peace time tonnage ever sunk.
[audience laughs]
The first album went to number one,
then the second album went to number one,
and the first album went to number two for like,
I’m gonna say 30 weeks.
[Interviewer] And you won like the Grammys
for the record, right?
I won three, I won the Best New Artist,
Album of the Year, and Spoken Word.
They didn’t even have a comedy category at that time.
[Narrator] Yeah.
Well this one, people wonder why I keep this.
While the sound of your music has enthralled millions.
[interviewer laughs]
So they obviously followed my career.
[Interviewer] Yeah.
I had a weird kind of career.
I had like a singer’s career
because I made that comedy album
and then,
God forbid, I didn’t do
the routines from the comedy album,
’cause that’s what they, I had,
they were like hit songs
that I was doing.
[both laugh]
And I’m sure Frank,
when I beat on Frank for Album
of the Year, I’m sure, well, who beat me out?
Well, this young kid, nobody knows who he is,
has a comedy record and he talks on the phone.
[audience applauds]
I need this, Frank, I need a shot. Do me a favor.
Gimme a break. I got relatives living in Jersey.
Not for long.
[audience laughs]
[upbeat jazz music plays]
Everyone knows that I kid about all peoples.
I’d like everybody to know
there’s no discrimination in Las Vegas.
They take everybody’s money.
We were in Vegas, I forget where you were playing,
but Don, of course, was playing the Sahara in those days.
My wife is a very warm person, very retiring,
but she met Ginnie Newhart, who’s a doll
and kind of outgoing.
And they met and just hit it off like crazy.
So, I get this call one day and it’s Barbara,
and she said, We’re here in Vegas
and can we get together?
And we were in Vegas together.
I was in the main room and Don…
[audience laughs]
[Newhart laughs]
True.
And Don was in the lounge. So Ginnie called Barbara
and she said, Why don’t we get together
with Don and Barb?
[Donahue] And you were married, both of you,
at the time?
Yeah. Yeah.
No, we were single working the area.
[Donahue] Alright.
[audience laughs]
And Don at that time was still one of the big spenders,
invited us to have dinner at the cafeteria at the Sahara.
[audience laughs]
We went and we met them at the coffee shop at the Sahara.
And Don was a pussycat.
And as we’re leaving, we were going
to see Don’s third show in the lounge.
And Ginnie said, Ginnie said to me, she said,
He’s such a sweet man.
He’s such a lovely man.
I said, Well, honey, it may be
a little different once
we get into the lounge.
[audience chuckles] So,
we got in the lounge, sat down, and he said,
I wanna introduce very good friends of mine,
the stammering idiot from Chicago, Bob Newhart,
and his hooker wife from Bayonne.
[audience laughs] [Richgels laughs]
[Newharts laugh]
And her jaw dropped.
[Ginnie chuckles]
I said, I tried to tell you.
[Newharts laugh]
And it was love ever since,
[Newhart] Ever since.
[lively brass music plays]
[Tim Newhart] I mean they’re, they’re standups,
but they’re completely different styles,
so it wasn’t threatening is my guess.
My dad was, you know, he’s a monologist.
Uncle Don was just sort of stream of consciousness.
and Rickles was never gonna do my dad’s shtick.
[Audience Member] Considering your brand of humor,
have you ever had any lawsuits?
No. Are you planning to make trouble?
[audience laughs]
You’re a Jew, you gotta be.
With that nose, if you’re not, you’re an eagle.
I’ll tell you this.
[audience laughs and applauds]
Would you rise? Japanese?
No, Chinese.
Chinese? Sure, since the war they’re all Chinese.
[audience laughs]
If you’re meeting Don for the first time,
he would get something on you right away.
[Interviewer] Mm.
Your beard, whatever, which prevented you from saying,
Hey, Baldy, hey, you’re a little overweight.
So, now you’re on this offensive.
[Interviewer] Yeah.
Is this too fast, Ronnie?
[audience laughs]
Anyway, he’s sitting there looking at the program going,
Where does it say he makes fun of me?
Where does it say that?
[audience laughs]
It’s only a joke. Mrs. Reagan. Ha-ha.
[whoosh sound plays]
[audience laughs]
It was a badge of honor to be attacked by Don.
[Narrator] Yeah. Yeah.
You know. Did ya hear what he called me.
He called me a hockey puck.
[all chuckle]
Isn’t that great?
I don’t know about you in school.
You went to Nebraska University, right?
[Carson] Yes, I did go to University.
What school did you go to Ed?
[McMahon] Boston College. Who cares?
[audience laughs]
He had that skill that, that ability
to just turn it
[hands smack]
[Interviewer] Yeah.
back on.
I think it was defensive.
I being a frightened guy, and to this day
I’m frightened when they say-
Are you Don?
I swear it. Yeah.
You know it’s a fool that walks out on the stage
and says, I’m there, you know, every night you know,
I’d say, Gee,- Don’t believe anybody.
will they laugh.
[loud brass music plays]
I think to be on,
that’s gotta be terrifying,
and I think they got through it together.
But it’s see, it’s apples and oranges.
What Bob does, I certainly couldn’t do,
and he certainly can’t do what I do,
although he attempts it quietly,
but I can’t do that.
It was a wonderful treat
to see Milton Berle backstage come up to me
and go, Hello, son. I’m Milton Berle.
[audience laughs]
I love Milton. You were my idol when I was a kid.
Now I’m getting shock treatments.
[audience laughs]
Is he, is he laughing? Take a look.
[audience continues to laugh]
[Interviewer] Did you like roasting?
No, it’s not my nature, but yeah,
I did quite a few
of Dean’s shows,
and then I did some of the roasts.
Ladies and gentlemen, the funniest psychiatrist
I know, Mr. Bob Newhart.
[audience applauds]
[Narrator] But you roasted Don.
[Newhart] Oh yeah.
[Narrator] What was it like to get a chance
to do what he does?
Heaven.
[both laugh]
Don is is my best, my best friend,
which just gives you some idea
of the difficulty I have in making friends.
[audience laughs]
But Don has not done that well in television.
He’s had four series now.
The last one, a couple of Don’s, received
a minus-four Nielsen rating.
[audience laughs]
[Newhart chuckles]
This means not only was no one watching,
but several people without TV sets had heard about the show
and said if they got one they wouldn’t watch it.
[audience laughs]
The basic thing in friendship with all the comedy,
I adore him and, and I know he adores me.
And the, the great thing about it’s that
our values are the same.
We believe in the same things,
and we laugh at the same things.
Well I think, you know, they were both family men
in a way that comics really weren’t, you know.
They were so in love with their wives.
My parents were married 50 years
and, you know, the idea of cheating,
you know, Bob or my dad, never in a million years.
And they were actually like prude, you know,
like my parents or Ginnie told me a story where
they were at a party.
It was like a tea party. It was swingers.
They were smoking, you know, weed,
and my parents, as soon as they saw that,
and Bob, they were like, we’re outta here.
You know, I remember once they had like a dinner,
it was just gonna be the four of them,
and Sinatra was gonna join.
And my dad said to whoever,
Did you ever think in your wildest dreams you would get
to the point in your life where you would try to figure out
how to not have dinner with Frank Sinatra?
[both laugh]
But that was it. They wanted it just, it needed
to be the core, you know?
[Interviewer] Yeah. That’s what they loved.
[Rickles] Well, we both have children,
and I’m proud of them.
And Bob has the same,
well I don’t wanna speak for Bob,
but I can say knowing his kids,
’cause I’m Uncle Don and vice versa,
and he’s Uncle Bob, and our kids are very well adjusted.
But that’s, our kids grew up together.
[playful music plays]
[Mindy] We always traveled with my dad when
he went on the road with my mother, my brother.
And the same with the Newharts.
I mean, they really tried to make it
as normal as they could.
And so that’s why Larry Rickles was my best friend.
The Rickles kids and the Newhart kids,
we were just always together.
[Reporter] Tell me about your summer plans this summer.
You and Newhart going away?
Yeah, we’re gonna go down to the beach
and attack a lifeguard.
On the sea of time
we will sing along Broadway.
Dance.
My parents and the Newharts.
they always had to be together.
I was like, when I grow up,
I wanna have another couple when I’m married
that are best friends.
We’ll travel with them and have so much fun.
Here we are. Hey.
Once again downtown LA.
I’ve got, you get in there,
and let me take a picture of you.
The area has to be fixed up a little bit,
but we’re working on it.
No matter where we went, we’d go to Hong Kong.
They’d say, Oh, we have the sushi [speaks gibberish],
and we have the wanton [speaks gibberish]`.
And I said, Yeah, whatever Barbara says.
What are you gonna have, Bob?
Do you have spaghetti bolognese?
The man has no idea where the hell he is.
I like bolognese.
[Bob laughs]
He tends to exaggerate.
We go to Germany, do have spaghetti bolognese.
That was his favorite dish.
Oh, this is Don with the, the kids in Thailand.
These are my children.
During the war, I stopped off here for about 10 minutes.
[family laughs]
This is Lam, this is Jung.
[family laughs]
And I’m Eddie.
Eddie.
Yes, later, later.
Later, later [laughing]
[family laughs]
Bob and my mother were very meticulous,
and very like OCD, and they handled everything.
And Ginnie and my dad were just like, whatever. You know?
[Narrator] Yeah.
I just wanna have fun. So it sort of balanced.
[Ginnie] Barbara would. she’d do all the,
you know, planning.
You know, we have to visit this,
we have to do this, we have to do that.
Don and I were just along for the ride.
[guys laugh]
I said to Barbara one time, I went
to change some money at the airport,
and they were sitting in the terminal.
I said, Barbara, if we got on a plane
and flew home right now,
they would still be here two years from now.
[all laugh]
Now I got a lovely wife.
We just came back from Paris and she shopped.
She has a black belt in shopping.
[man laughs]
Ah. She went bananas.
The woman never looked up. The bags were like this.
She never looked up once.
[Interviewer] Nothing.
Valentino thinks she’s part of the family.
Don had to marry somebody like Barbara.
Yeah.
Because she was the organizer.
You know, we had the same life.
You know, not only just wives, show business wives,
we were wives of comedians.
And one of the reasons he married Barbara was
because she never laughed at his jokes.
[both chuckle]
It was, you know. Hmm. Oh that’s nice.
That’s, that’s, oh, that’s funny.
[guys laugh]
Well this is when we were in Israel,
he would keep making statements,
and that’s why it drove Barbara nuts,
’cause- Right.
He was always wrong.
Oh, I’m sure. Uh-ha.
And [chuckling] he said, Oh, there, that building.
He said, I know that’s
the Israeli jail
for the Palestinians.
And then the driver, David, would say, No,
that’s the National Jewish Library.
So now we get, now he’s asked a couple
of the dumb questions. Right.
And Don said, I know I’m right about this.
You say I keep asking dumb questions.
Those poles were put up by the Israeli defense forces
to prevent the, the tanks from Syria advancing any further.
And the driver said, No, those poles were put up
by the Israeli telephone company.
[both chuckle]
[Interviewer] And so you moved here. Don was here already.
Yeah, Don and Barbara. They have, they have
a house, not quite as big as this
[all chuckle]
about a block and a half away.
[Narrator] Yeah. – That’s a commitment.
After many years you decided you could handle that.
Knowing him as I do,
[both chuckle]
I mean to wake up at eight o’clock in the morning
and start the day off with being insulted,
if that’s your idea of a great time.
Barbara’s gone a year, right?
Yeah.
And Don’s gone three years.
Don is three years. Yeah.
[melancholy piano music plays]
Well, you know, he got sick almost immediately.
We moved here- Yeah.
That’s what I remembered.
We moved here in 2016,
and he died the year later.
[Interviewer] Yeah.
So, I mean, he was so excited, and
Now I can walk down to your house.
And he was like a kid when we, you know,
said we’re gonna move here,
and he got sick.
Don had the same condition I wound up with,
which was a spinal stenosis,
and he couldn’t do you know what he used to do,
running across the stage, running back and forth.
I think that hurt a little bit,
because it took a lot of the energy.
[Interviewer] Yeah.
[dramatic orchestra music plays]
He was pretty much doing it right up until the end,
except he wasn’t standing up.
[Interviewer] He was in… Yeah.
And,
[Interviewer] you, you missed that, Yeah.
that energy,
that
was gone.
You know, at first it’s always a shock.
And now I think of something
and I, oh, I have to call Barbara
because we talk for 60 years almost, ya know?
That’s a long time. I miss her.
I miss her.
I miss him. I miss our trips.
[Bob] Yeah.
I miss, I’m,
just miss them,
and I’m gonna start to cry.
♪ I’ll trade you laughter for love. ♪
♪ I’ll trade you one for the other. ♪
I wish everybody had the friendship that
Ginnie and I and Barbara and Don had.
He, he made me laugh. I made him laugh.
And we miss ’em, ya know?
We’re in Israel, there’s a, we’re on our way
to the Bedouin Caves as a matter of fact. Yeah.
Well I love that you’re stepping in Bob.
[Newharts laugh]
A dear man. Yup.
A dear man.
[family laughs]
[Barb] That’s Don. Yeah.
[Bob] That’s him against the wall. Yeah.
[Barb] I see him.
[people singing on TV]
[Don] ♪ This is my life ♪
♪ For all of my life. ♪
♪ And you are part of this life ♪
♪ I live. ♪
♪ I swear that it’s true ♪
♪ I love to do what I do ♪
♪ To share this laughter I give ♪
♪ For just a little love ♪
♪ from you ♪
[orchestra music plays]
[audience applauds and cheers]
There was one time Don was on stage,
and he’s about halfway, he’s maybe a half hour
into his act, and there was some smoke backstage.
And so Tony went and notified Don, you know,
cut, cut, to cut to the end.
So, he salutes Etta.
He said, Your mother’s here up in heaven.
Never forget your mother,
’cause your mother never forgets you.
But now the smoke clears, [chuckles]
and Tony says, You know, Don, you should go back
and do another half hour or 45 minutes.
He says, ya know, okay.
So, now he does a half hour, 45 minutes,
and he does this very moving salute
to his dead sister.
He doesn’t have a dead sister,
[crew laughs]
but in his, [chuckles] in his mind, you’ve gotta interact
with a dead person of some kind.
[crew laughs]
[Bob laughs]