(upbeat jazz music) ♪ (Robin) Since this is PBS, good luck using this.

You should be a TV star!

Oh, no, too much pressure and you have to get up too early.

(Tina) I don't think there's anyone here who isn't aware that this is a little special moment in time.

(Liz) For once, I am not gonna be Jan Brady.

I'm gonna be Marcia, dammit.

Oh, my nose!

(Jimmie) I came out to be funny.

Here I am!

I don't think anybody else on the show was trying to do that.

Pure dyn-o-mite!

(audience laughter) ♪ (Jonathan) Oh, God, I wish Ethel was here to see this.

(Cloris) I'm willing to be silly and dumb and foolish and fall on my ass.

(Phyllis) Why on earth do you want to go out with a man you know nothing about?

Hello.

Ohh.

(Robin) I got lucky.

I won the lottery.

♪ (jazz piano music) (narrator) Their performances made us laugh.

It's still in people's consciousness from that time.

You know, people go, "Diddy-diddy."

You mean "nanu-nanu."

"Yeah, that's it."

-Nanu-nanu.

-Ah.

I grew up in a house where we watched a lot of comedy and we would then go around and imitate it.

-You think I'm funny?

-You're funny!

(Tina) You think so?

'Cause people say I'm funny, but it's like, ah, I don't see it, you know?

You gotta get messy in comedy.

It's gotta be ugly.

You gotta take the pie.

I rate it "D" for dyn-o-mite!

(ditzy music) (narrator) Their acting skills amused a generation.

I didn't think about being funny in those days.

♪ Just thought about being an actress.

Physical pieces that I would put in, and by the time we got to showtime, we were so excited to present it.

What can I do to make you like me?

(Laura) Get off the stage.

(horn music) These two crazy guys, you know, that have just been released from a major hospital.

(shouting) Sometimes method acting can be like urinating in brown corduroy pants: you feel fabulous, we see nothing.

You have to think, "I know what they w-- I know what this is about, but how can I do it in a more interesting or fresher way?"

-Hello.

-Huh?

(Phyllis) I really admire you for having the nerve to stay here after that humiliating experience.

(energetic jazz music) (narrator) Together, they brought comedy acting to the television age.

They are the pioneers of television.

♪ (spirited music) In the late 1970s, Robin Williams took television by storm with a different approach to comedy, a manic style he showcased on Mork & Mindy.

So, you're from outer space?

Yes, do you mind if I take a few pictures for the folks on the home planet?

They'd like to get some postcards.

Uh, no.

(Mork) Okay, watch the flukey.

(camera shutter clicking) (audience laughter) It came at a time when people are going, "What's this?"

And we got lucky.

And then it was just this thing of-- It became every Thursday night people going-- they wanted to see how crazy it would be.

-Like to buy a record?

-Oh, I'm just kind of browsing.

Let's show you the special deal, new from Rotel, Marcel Marceau's Greatest Hits.

Who cannot forget man ascending an escalator or man watching the world's largest staircase?

There he goes walking across it now.

Also, let's just forget the vinyl and look inside.

See the other exciting uses you can get from this.

Look, it can be a hand glove.

It also can dice, slice, and make julienne fries.

(audience laughter) It can also be a party favor and King Tut hat.

Who knew?

Also, a puppet for a two-dimensional child.

"Hi, Mom, nice to have you home."

(mellow music) (narrator) Long before his breakout hit, Robin Williams had spent years honing his skills, beginning with a class he took in a new kind of comedy performance called improvisation.

And it was this beginning of getting laughs, especially around improvising, which I went, "You literally can create it there in that space?"

They went, "Yeah."

"Okay, let's do this."

♪ (narrator) The response to his early comedy performances in San Francisco encouraged Williams to take the next step: moving to Los Angeles to try his luck in clubs and improv groups, gradually working out the bits that would later make him a star.

My God, (unintelligible).

My God!

So lovely.

Look at this thing.

My God, right now, there's a whole bunch of animals going, "Is it cold!

Jesus!"

(applause, laughter) (whistling) It's the idea of, you know, just starting off with concepts and then just building off of that and, weirdly, a lot of times just playing off the audience.

Oh, I guess you couldn't afford the bottom fur.

(laughter, applause) I feel like Liberace right now, going, "Just leave me the candelabra, damn you!

Leave me the candelabra."

This is wonderful.

Robin's wearing the lovely pants from Hefty bag.

(audience laughter) ♪ Oh, pretty girl ♪ It took a while to kind of just get the feeling of, okay, try this, try this, and ostensibly, his character has been jumping around a lot of different characters.

There's a little kid, a kind of pretentious little-- I remember I did a character called Little Andrew who was very, very intelligent a long time before the iPad, who was basically downloading information.

-"How?"

-"Psychically.

Don't make me hurt you."

But it was just, you know, some people would like it.

Other people were like, "Whoa, what is this?"

One was a Russian stand-up comedian kind of a takeoff named Nicky Lenin who did suppressions.

A Soviet poem of pain and suffering.

Little robin upon my windowsill with tiny breast of red.

I brought the window slowly down and crushed the sucker's head.

(audience laughter) It's old but sometimes works.

Soviet ventriloquism.

"John, are you happy to be here?"

(unintelligible) (narrator) In small comedy clubs like this, audiences are notoriously fickle, but Williams learned from each performance.

I remember there was one show we did at a club, and it was the opening night of this club, and the mics all broke and the sound system went out.

And the guy went, "What are we gonna do?

What are we gonna do?"

"I can talk loud!"

And that was the first time-- That kind of also determined my style of just being off-mic and not a standing target, working the whole audience and using that ability to project my voice to kind of change the perspective in the room.

So that was the beginning of using, literally, one of those skills.

Wandering over here, one second, I have to wander back.

Thank--thank you.

"Oh, we're just gonna work on this.

We're gonna tease it a little.

Just look over-- How about those 49ers?

Do you think they're ever gonna work again?

I don't know, let's look over here.

Let's just look over here just a second.

Okay, we're gonna put a little up here.

Hare Krishna, Hare--" Sorry, right now she's going, "I worked all day on that!"

Ooh, mm, more smoke, I want to die.

When it works, there's nothing better.

And when it doesn't work, there's nothing worse, hence the metaphors "you kill or die."

There's no in between.

The metaphors are pretty brutal.

"You killed."

There was on occasion: "You maimed."

Then, when you don't do well, "You died."

Ford to intellect, saving warning sequence to save your ass at any cost.

Uh, phase in sequence two, dynamite opening response B.

Phase in opening sequence B, phase in now.

Hey, nice to be here.

That's a routine I actually developed that was called What Goes On Inside a Comic's Mind When You're Bombing.

And it was Come Inside My Mind, and it was literally the desperation of looking for material and trying to find the right joke and eventually getting, you know, you go blue just because that's the only way to get out of it.

Move on to dynamite second routine 1B.

Phase in now, phase in routine.

response 1B, sequence A.

How about that (unintelligible), eh?

Mayday!

Mayday!

Mayday!

And, then, finally, your id comes up going, "Let me go, I can talk to 'em.

(unintelligible) let me go, I got some stuff."

"No, not you."

"Ah-ha-ha!

Talk about your mother."

"You're not ready, you're not ready."

♪ (narrator) ABC saw Williams' act and, in 1978, fast-tracked a new sitcom in which he'd play an alien.

Critics were skeptical of the premise, but Mork & Mindy was a big hit.

Ring!

Ring!

Please get the telephone.

(Mork) Oh, phone.

Primitive means of audio communication.

(audience laughter) I wonder what it looks like.

(telephone ringing) Hello!

Hello?

(telephone ringing) I killed it.

It struck a chord because it was so kind of out of left field in that way.

But it was a blast, the first year was crazy fun.

Ahh!

I'm going home, Mama.

Ah!

(audience laughter) Are you all right?

(applause) Hey, don't take away my gusto.

(unintelligible) Ah, help me, I'm melting!

(jazz piano music) (narrator) Mork & Mindy was performed in front of a studio audience, a long-standing technique that especially benefits comedians like Williams who need the feedback of an audience reaction.

People forget that Chaplin, when he did a lot of his movies, was performing in front of people, that they sometimes would have-- A lot of the silent comedians would have, like, because there was no soundtrack, they'd have an audience there.

They knew where the laughs were.

Or he would take it out as stage productions.

Like the Marx Brothers did all of their movies as stage productions first, so they knew where all the laughs were.

(narrator) Television couldn't contain Robin Williams and, soon, he was starring in movies like Good Morning, Vietnam.

Good morning, Vietnam!

Hey, this is not a test.

This is rock-and-roll!

(narrator) Director Barry Levinson took advantage of Williams' improvisational skills by secretly filming him from a distance as he interacted with locals.

There'd be just entire kids and different people kind of and we'd be talking, and he'd just say, "Start rolling."

He wouldn't let anybody know, and you'd get wonderful stuff with just the people, just regular folks.

(Adrian) It's gone, no big deal.

♪ Look, how lovin' can you feel ♪ ♪ When you got that moment when ♪ ♪ Don't you know that the time can be that away ♪ ♪ Whack-a-whack, whack-a-whack, whack-a-whack ♪ We end up playing with a grapefruit instead of a baseball, and there was one actor: "This is not a real baseball.

I have seen a real baseball."

And he just started arguing with me, and Barry said, "Keep rolling, roll, put on the camera."

And it was wonderful 'cause he was like, "No, it's a baseball."

"No, it's not a baseball, this a piece of fruit."

(man) It was smaller and harder than this one.

(Adrian) You got me there, Wilk, because I'm sorry, we have no budget, you see, and I got to get on a plane and we have to do with what we can.

-Give me your hand.

-Thank you all the same.

(Adrian) Thank you all the same.

(uplifting music) (narrator) Williams would go on to play a wide range of both comic and serious roles in films, winning an Academy Award for Good Will Hunting.

But for many, he remains the iconic Mork from Ork.

It still is, I think, even after winning an Academy Award, for like a week, people going, "Hey, Good Will Hunting, way to go."

Two weeks later, "Hey, Mork."

It doesn't change.

♪ (narrator) By the fourth season of Mork & Mindy, the producers decided to add a new character played by the only comedian who could match Robin Williams' spontaneous comic energy: Jonathan Winters.

I don't like you, Freddie.

I don't like you, Junior.

You wonder why I'm different, why I'm twisted and bent out of shape.

Because you took my parents from me!

(audience laughter) (ditzy music) (narrator) In many ways, Jonathan Winters had paved the way for Robin Williams as television's first improvisational genius.

I know you're bitter because you had to leave that plush job there in the Pentagon.

What do you mean I'm cuckoo?

Cut that jazz out.

Let's face it, it's sort of a challenge.

It's sort of... Hope I didn't get any on ya.

It's sort of man against the jungle, you might say, you know, malaria, yellow fever.

Animals.

No offense, Rodney.

You see, I'll be shoving off before long and, look, you're into me for 200 an hour.

Keep your hands out.

(Robin) He made it possible for me to think that you could do anything.

He made it possible to do voices, characters, sound effects, and all these different things that just opened the world up.

He was morphing before the technology.

So it was--that was, for me, like the beginning of, like, "wow."

(man) Tell me, Mr. Groundhog, do you predict six miserable lousy weeks of winter ahead of us or not?

(Mr. Groundhog) I don't know anything about the weather, Chuck.

I could tell you this, it's a crummy hole I live in down there.

It's rotten, it's damp, the missus is about the ugliest broad I have ever seen.

(audience laughter) (man) Come along.

(Jonathan) Now Robin Williams said to me one time, "Pops, you're my mentor."

And I said, "No, no.

Listen, don't say 'mentor.'

In Ohio, they think that's a sav.

Say 'idol.'

Everybody gets that.

I love idol.

Say 'mentor,' it looks like you're at the pharmaceutical thing.

Put that on your skin."

(narrator) Jonathan Winters' comedy skills ran deep.

As a boy in Dayton, Ohio, he listened to his grandfather joke about the town celebrities Wilbur and Orville Wright.

(Jonathan) And I met Orville Wright when I was a kid.

My grandfather went to school with these guys.

And he said... "They were devoid of any humor.

They were not funny.

I went like this to them and I said, you know, 'How's the airplane, Orville?'"

(narrator) As a young man, Winters hoped to become an artist, but his wife set him on a different track.

My wife said, "Your art isn't that good.

I'm gonna tell you I love you," and this and that.

"You don't have a style, and you got to have a style.

As a performer in the music business, acting, you got to have a style."

And I didn't have a style.

(narrator) Winters went to New York and developed his unique improvisational style.

Soon, he was a regular on the talk-show circuit.

(Jack) He has a plan to save Cuba, listen to this.

(mimicking John F. Kennedy) Well, my plan was this, Jack.

From one Jack to another, it has been my feeling right along, and I tried to get Congress to go along with me, my friends.

Lyndon, who I saw about a year ago.

(audience laughter) Jonathan Winters was almost unknown until he had the Jack Paar experience, and people who came on that show became, suddenly, known.

Did you ever undress in front of a dog?

(audience laughter) Um...

I'll tell you.

You think about that for a minute.

I don't know, people, you know, it's funny.

A bird--a bird somehow doesn't count, right?

(audience laughter) Or a cat.

But a dog, they really stare.

(audience laughter) (Florence) If Jack Paar liked what you were doing, you know, the rest of the guests could come back the next night.

I just come out of the shower and here was my dog.

(audience laughter) You know they can't talk, right?

It's the way they look at ya, that... (audience laughter) And wagged her little tail, went out and told her friends what she'd seen.

I remember seeing him, watching him with my father.

My dad was kind of, you know, very kind of quiet, like this, and Jonathan did a thing where he came on one time on The Tonight Show with Jack Paar, and he came out and said-- And Jack said, "What are you?"

(Jack) What are you?

(Spring) I'm the voice of spring.

(audience laughter) I bring you some little goodies from the forest.

(whistling) Then I saw my dad lose it and I went, "Okay, this guy, I like this guy."

-Well... -When did you decide to do this?

This is something new.

(Spring) Well, I've been in the forest and... (Jack) You've been on Third Avenue is where you've been, I think.

(Spring) Oh, you devil.

Wee!

(Jack) Took me 45 minutes to get that in there.

(Spring) Oh, I'm sorry, I'm sorry.

In the forest, we don't care.

(audience laughter) (applause) (soft music) (narrator) At each performance, Winters would morph into a collection of characters, all funny, all spontaneous.

(woman) That was very touching, boys and girls.

Excuse me while I shed a tear.

I don't want to do it in front of you.

Oh.

Ah.

(audience laughter) Ah!

Why, a little medicine.

"And the boy said, 'No, no.'"

"Easy, Alan, I'll tell it."

"I'm not from Paris, I'm from Bordeaux."

"And we seen this light up there and it was a huge saucer."

"I had a marvelous appetite.

You can tell that by looking at me."

"Oh, God, I wish Ethel was here to see this."

"Take me to your leader, take me to your leader."

"And did you take him to your leader?"

"I didn't know who my leader was."

(nervous laughing) "Stop that, boy."

(jazz music) (narrator) In 1956, Jonathan Winters got his own television show, the first-ever series broadcast in color.

It didn't last long, but he was back in 1967 with another series showcasing his comic genius.

Margaret, if you'd be kind enough to plug in that new electric knife that you gave me for a special turkey here.

Would you plug it in, sweetheart?

(audience laughter) Oh!

I'm sorry, Uncle Willy.

Try to stand, will ya?

Cut your tongue off, didn't it?

Aw.

When we talk about improvisation, it's a little scary.

It's always scary.

A lot of you people have asked why my strange headdress.

Well, don't ask anymore.

(spitting) (applause) When you saw him on his show where he would come out with a box of stuff and just take out something... One time I remember he came out and said, "My name is Tommy Turney.

I come from the country of Tonguewag.

Our country is 400 yards wide and 20 miles long."

And then they said, "What is your chief export?"

"Mainly rope."

It was like... And he just started building these things.

Give him a hat, he could go for days.

(Jonathan) It's not easy here on this bloody ship, is it, matey?

-Is it?

-It's not easy, sir.

(Jonathan) Of course it isn't.

You want to go that route again?

Lock and load the cannon.

-That's the cannon right there.

-Yes, sir.

(Jonathan) See, I've been drinking too.

I can't tell the difference.

(Andy) These are all different from this afternoon.

(Jonathan) You bet they are there.

And he'd make these things up.

But, then, it came time to do it again on a live show, after the dress rehearsal, he wasn't as good because he didn't want to do the same thing.

And the time he did it first was the funniest.

That was the first thing that came into his head.

Boom, and he did it, and it was great.

(Jonathan) Let's--let's play swords.

(audience laughter) I didn't have to anything except just stand there and laugh at him.

I'd sing a song and, supposedly, I don't know that he's behind me doing all kinds of crazy things.

♪ I'm starry-eyed ♪ ♪ And vaguely discontented ♪ (piano music) ♪ Like a nightingale ♪ ♪ Without a song to sing ♪ (whistling, cawing) ♪ It was silly for me to sing it in dress rehearsal and for him to do it because, again, he was funnier doing it the first time than he was the second time.

The reason a lot of these guys, Andy and Dean and Steve and Jack, had chosen me was a very dangerous thing, but thank God.

♪ They would say, if they were here today to say it-- I would bet on this-- "One thing about Winters, you never knew what he was going to say or do."

When we had Jonathan on, it was amazing 'cause he and I, they would just do these things.

They're like Jonathan and Robin riff here.

(Mork) I was kicked out of Sandhurst, sir.

They found me in a dress.

(Mearth) It doesn't make any difference.

-They found you in what?

-A gown.

(Mearth) A gown is better.

(audience laughter) (Robin) One time we did a World War One takeoff.

They shot for, like, 45 minutes to the point where the cameras were running out of film.

They were like machine gunners at (unintelligible) Canal.

"I'm out!"

"Get a gunner to camera three!"

And we were just riffing.

(Mork) They're coming, Father, look!

Thousands of Huns, Germans, borscht.

Germans and borscht.

-What's borscht?

-A small soup with beets.

(Mearth) I suppose.

And then, eventually, they would cut it down to five minutes.

(mimicking gunfire) (Mork) Ah!

Ow!

My hand!

My hand!

(unintelligible shouting) -I'm hurt!

I'm hurt!

-I know you are, but you killed the old man with four fingers in his head.

(audience laughter) Well, it's...

These two crazy guys, you know, that have just been released from a major hospital.

And, "Ah-ha-ha, we're on the playground now, you'll never get us.

(unintelligible) ba-ba-ba-ba-ba."

And he is on full throttle.

I mean, I can be on full throttle, but I found out what full throttle can do to ya 'cause you can end up hitting the pylon rather than going around it.

Um, the thing--to me, Robin is like a great air show.

(Mearth) Looks like the bloody war is over.

-No, sir.

-What a shame.

-And at night, no action.

-You know, I can't...

I think it's--no, it's my medallions.

(audience laughter) -There we go.

-It would take him literally sometimes 30 minutes to get from his car to the set on Mork & Mindy because he would stop and perform for everybody.

The guy comes up: "I see you on television."

Of course, a lot of times, I would say, "I'm Leland Buckhorn, and I'm a bronc rider."

"No, that's not it."

"Oh, yes, it is.

I'm Leland Buckhorn.

And I busted my whole thing down here riding them Brahman bulls.

It's just terrible for me."

I can't do it no more.

And I had the woman turn to her husband, "Eddie, I told you it wasn't him."

Jonathan Winters, as everyone knows, is some kind of a savant or something.

I mean, I don't know.

He just never stopped.

He was always in some character.

I just think he felt so comfortable there.

(narrator) Writing for an improvisational performer like Jonathan Winters was a challenge because Winters liked to work out his own bits.

They would give him stuff to say that if he didn't think was funny, he couldn't memorize it.

"Jonathan, please.

Just do the lines.

What we talked about for five days, okay?"

Because he's so naturally funny that I think it was like tissue rejection.

They would write him stuff to say, just "pff."

You know, and he'd go, "I don't know."

You got six to seven writers on the show.

Okay?

(soft music) "This one scene here in the second act, please, let's just do it."

"Tomorrow we'll do it."

"Why can't we do it now, man?

I'd like to get it started.

You know, I want to get this thing going."

"It's gonna be big changes all week."

"I know that, okay."

Now Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, skipping, you're fighting for your life, I'm fighting to get in some... "I want to do a thing with the window out here with the kids."

"What window?"

"A breakfront."

"It's a fake window, okay.

Can you get that?

You're getting 60,000 bucks.

A fake window."

"Whoo, Mr. Winters, your medication."

"Mm, there we go, whoo."

Because he's so instinctually funny that you just want to go, "Let him go.

Let him free-range, we'll be there."

You know, and then, when they did, it would work.

(narrator) What made Jonathan Winters and Robin Williams unique was their ability to create comedy from nothing instantaneously.

♪ Improvisational masters can conceive, write, and perform a line all in the blink of an eye.

♪ At the other end of the spectrum are performers who focus on preparation: getting into their roles, carefully crafting the delivery of each funny word.

Among the most honored of these formally trained comedy actors is Cloris Leachman, who's won more acting Emmy Awards than anyone else.

♪ In 1946, Cloris Leachman nearly won the Miss America contest, but beauty pageants weren't her goal.

She wanted to act, a dream since she stepped on stage as a little girl and learned her first lesson about comedy.

And I twirled and did-- and I slipped and fell flat on my ass.

And I was horrified.

And everybody laughed.

And it changed, I'm sure, my outlook for the rest of my life, that it's okay to fall flat on your ass.

The audience is with you.

They're right there with you and for you.

(narrator) Studying under Elia Kazan at the famed Actors Studio, Leachman learned the techniques of dramatic acting which she then applied to comedy.

(Cloris) Kazan emphasized using objects in a scene instead of using your face.

"Well, gee, you know."

He would have you do something with an object that would show how you're feeling.

(Maureen) He's gonna get this business deal on its feet all right.

One of them feet is gonna be right on your neck.

(Clarence) Now that's a damn lie.

Now listen, Floyd, this outfit is gonna go through, but the arrangement has got to be between you and me.

So I said, "I need something."

The prop department said, "Well, what do you need?"

"Well, I don't know.

Candy?"

So they gave me this bowl on a stand with wrapped candy covered.

(Martha) My goodness, let's not squabble.

(Maureen) Yeah, let's not fight about anything silly like old Maureen dummy.

What the hell?

(audience laughter) Crack.

I cracked it.

Oh, yes, it got a big laugh.

(laughing) That's the sort of thing that's wonderful, uh, to use objects.

♪ (narrator) Throughout her career, Leachman has been careful not to play stock comic characters.

Instead, she works to make each performance unique.

It's so easy to do clichés.

We all know what they-- In fact, some actors who think they're really good and they aren't, they think they're good because they know the clichés.

"Oh, I know, you stand this way," or you don't cry, or you do, or whatever.

At this point, it's all clichés.

So, you have to think, "I know what this is about, but how can I do it in a more interesting or fresher way?"

(narrator) Cloris Leachman's breakthrough role on television came as Phyllis on The Mary Tyler Moore Show.

-So this is the newsroom.

-Yeah, this is it.

-Morning, Gordy.

-Hi, Mary, how are you?

(Mary) Oh, Gordy, I'd like you to meet Phyllis Lindstrom, my new assistant.

This is Gordy Howard, our weatherman.

(Phyllis) Gordy, I just want to say one thing.

I'd love you to come over for dinner so we can really get to know each other.

I mean as human beings because we're going to be working together.

(Gordy) Yeah, uh-huh.

(Phyllis) Gordy and I really hit it off.

♪ (narrator) Leachman's comic nemesis on the show was Valerie Harper's Rhoda.

(Cloris) We loved each other, we were great friends.

We'd go to lunch every day and decide what we were going to do so we wouldn't take so much time on the set, because Mary and Jay, the director, they'd do it and that's the end of it.

(Phyllis) Rhoda, you'll give me an honest opinion, won't you?

(Rhoda) Not necessarily, Phyl.

Well, listen, I'll taste it.

Give it a try here.

I love this pie.

So it's come down to this.

I've become such an object of pity -that even Rhoda is being kind.

-No!

(soft jazz music) (narrator) The Phyllis character was eventually spun off into her own show, but with a different cast, the comedy dynamic changed.

Lars proposed to somebody before me?

Oh, he must have known her long before he knew me.

Oh, no, dear, I think he was going out with both of you at the same time.

When you take a character out of a group, like The Mary Tyler Moore Show, it's not a character.

It's only defined by the people around you.

So, it was tricky, and each week I thought, "Who am I gonna be this week?"

It was a little tricky.

Isn't that interesting?

♪ (narrator) Always looking to stretch her comic skills, Leachman took movie roles, including an iconic turn as Frau Blücher in Young Frankenstein.

That was your cigar smoldering in the ashtray!

Yes!

And it was you who left my grandfather's book out for me to find!

Yes!

-So that I would... -Yes!

-And you and Victor were... -Yes!

Yes!

Say it!

He was my boyfriend!

And then Mel Brooks gave me one line reading in all I've ever done with him.

I said, "Stay close to the candles.

The staircase can be treacherous."

He gave me this line reading: "Stay close to the candles.

The staircase can be treacherous."

That means a couple of people have died already.

Isn't that funny?

Stay close to the candles.

The staircase can be treacherous.

(jazz piano music) In High Anxiety, director Mel Brooks suggested Leachman play the role of Nurse Diesel just like she had played Frau Blücher, but the actress had another idea.

He said, "Oh."

He said, "Well, how do you want to play it?"

I said, "I don't know, but I'm so hateful and evil, I don't want anybody to recognize me, and I think they know my smile from The Mary Tyler Moore Show.

So I think maybe if I don't smile.

I don't know.

And I kind of talk like that."

(Dr. Richard Harper) Nurse Diesel!

Are you all right?

-Yes.

-We heard some weird noises emanating from your room.

We were worried.

Weird noises.

It was the TV.

I'm sorry it disturbed you.

I've turned it down.

Anything else?

It is rather late.

(narrator) Leachman's acting skills were so strong, she could play an over-the-top comic role for Mel Brooks one day and an intensely serious role for Peter Bogdanovich the next.

(rattling) (shattering) (Ruth) What am I doing apologizing to you?

Why am I always apologizing to you, you little bastard?!

(soft music) (narrator) In The Last Picture Show, Leachman played Ruth Popper, the role that would earn her an Academy Award, thanks to the power of this scene.

I haven't done anything wrong!

Why can't I quit apologizing?

You're the one who ought to be sorry!

I wouldn't still be in my bathrobe.

If it hadn't been for you, I'd have had my clothes on hours ago.

You're the one made me quit caring if I got dressed or not!

(sighing) (narrator) As she got older, Cloris Leachman found herself back on television, continuing to create a unique character for each role.

("Jingle Bells" playing) You do this to torture me?

To hurt me?

(Francis) You don't like Christmas music?

(Ida) It sounds like a song they sang when they would ride through the villages and throw the babies into the fire.

They sang "Jingle Bells"?

They sang something.

I have a--a knitting needle.

My grandson is here, perfectly lovely, darling boy.

♪ And I get mad, I don't know, and I stab him with my knitting needle in his thigh, and he goes, "Ow!"

♪ (Francis) Ow!

God!

What the hell is wrong with you?

(Ida) You like pushing me?

That's what happens when you push, big tough guy.

Ooh, and because he goes on about it, I jiggle--I--oh!

I'm just horrible.

(laughing) Isn't that terrible?

(Francis) You shouldn't even be allowed to be a grandma!

-Are you finished?

-Yes!

I am--ah!

(shouting) (Ida) Oh, I am so sorry.

Ugh, I should have kissed your boo-boos and made them better.

It's always been a big challenge then not to repeat myself and not to do clichés.

Even a script will say, "She comes and sits."

Well, you don't want to sit then.

You find a way to do something else or maybe start to sit and not, or get on one leg, or lean.

You've lost your mind, and you never lose it for very long, so listen up.

I understand.

Go.

Let's do this.

We'd like you to quit smoking.

What are you talking about?

You guys aren't letting me smoke, are you?

I quit smoking in 1971.

-You did?

-Yeah.

I quit when Virginia was born.

You quit smoking for me?

(Maw Maw) If you're Virginia, yeah.

I wanted to live long enough to see what you'd grow up to be.

Doesn't look like it was worth the wait.

What I think is fun, to bring comedy to serious things and bring serious things to comedy.

And we won't let you smoke anymore.

In fact, since you're quitting, no one in this house is gonna smoke anymore.

(clicking) (upbeat music) ♪ (clicking) ♪ Good luck with that.

♪ (narrator) For a versatile actor like Cloris Leachman, the subtle nuances of each character were the key to her performances.

(jazz piano music) But another group of comedy actors were quite happy to play it big and broad in iconic roles that audiences loved.

(Florida) Junior?

Junior!

-Junior?

-Don't stop me now, Mama!

I'm past the point of no return!

(audience laughter) (upbeat music) (narrator) Jimmie Walker played just one role on television, yet few actors have shot to prominence more quickly or created more controversy than Walker did on a show called Good Times.

I came on to be funny.

That was my plan of attack.

(Michael) A Black family should have a Black symbol.

(J.J.) If Mama sees that there, she gonna kill you.

Jesus may have your soul, but Mama gonna have your behind.

(audience laughter) When I come on, I want nuclear bomb comedy.

And I don't think anybody else on the show--they're actors, so they're thinking, "We're acting."

I came out as a stand-up.

Different deal.

(Florida) And, Junior, don't think of taking mail that ain't ours.

(audience laughter) I don't take things, Mama.

I find them.

(audience laughter) Then don't find any mail that ain't ours.

God didn't make man to steal.

Then how come he gave us more pockets than hands?

(audience laughter) (narrator) Producer Norman Lear had designed Good Times as a vehicle to portray the African American experience, but Jimmie Walker's character became so popular, so fast, he changed the direction of the show.

Overnight, Walker's comic catchphrase became part of the national vocabulary.

Dyn-o-mite!

Dyn-o-mite!

Dyn-o-mite!

(narrator) "Dyn-o-mite" made Jimmie Walker famous, but the very first time he used it, Walker wasn't so sure.

Director John Rich, he says, "I want you to do it like this."

And I went, "John, that's a little silly.

That's--just to have somebody stand up and say 'dynamite' in the middle of a show?"

He says, "This thing is gonna be big."

Dyn-o-mite!

(audience laughter) (applause) (soft music) (narrator) Jimmie Walker's outsized acting was popular from the start, but backstage, controversy was brewing.

I felt that they, uh, we had lost the focus which was the family as a whole and not just, you know, buffoonery.

Today hasn't been a good day in the chicken delivering business.

(woman) What happened?

Somebody rip off your coleslaw?

(audience laughter) No, worse than that.

I lost my job.

(Florida) You lost your job?

Oh, honey, what happened?

(woman) They catch you finger-licking again?

And I made it clear as to what my feelings were that, you know, "How much more-- how many more chicken hats and how-- You know, how long can we do this?"

(Jimmie) As talent, I don't think Norman Lear agrees with anything that I've ever done.

I think that Norman felt that his show was hijacked, his idea, what he wanted to do, and I think to this day he still regrets that.

(soft piano music) Sometimes we would have a moment, and Norman Lear would always say, "Well, didn't that moment feel much better than that tomfoolery you're always doing?"

I would go, "No."

That's it.

I'm here for laughs.

If you need a laugh, let me bring it.

I'm coming in on the big Boeing 707.

I'm trying to kill.

(narrator) For Walker, sitcoms should be about laughs, and the way to get laughs is to play it big.

(Jimmie) In any sitcom you do, someone has to be the guy to take the pie.

By that, I mean that person has to be the one that you look to for laughs.

You've got to commit.

Snot's got to come out your nose.

Your eyes got to water.

You gotta have hands flapping.

(upbeat horn music) You've got to get messy in comedy.

It's got to be ugly.

You gotta take the pie, somebody-- And the person that takes the pie usually is gonna surface 'cause that's where the person-- that's where people gravitate.

(narrator) Much of Jimmie Walker's appeal came from his ability to use his wiry frame for comic effect.

It's part of a long tradition of TV actors best known for their physical comedy, a group that includes Art Carney, Don Knotts, Penny Marshall, John Ritter, and Michael Richards.

(Jerry) Man, these are tight!

Squinch your hips in!

-I am squinching my hips!

-Keep squinching 'em!

(audience laughter) -(unintelligible).

-All right.

It's not gonna work, it's not gonna work.

Let me just think for a second here.

(Kramer) You better get me... (audience laughter) (telephone dinging) Get me up, get me up, get me up.

(Jerry) Hold it, hold it, hold it.

Hold it, look.

You're gonna need the jaws of life to get out of those things.

(narrator) Among television's all-time most gifted physical performers: Dick Van Dyke.

(announcer) The Dick Van Dyke Show.

(lively music) Starring Dick Van Dyke.

He missed the ottoman sometimes.

Sometimes, he tripped over the ottoman.

♪ Loved it, I just loved it.

Still love it.

(shouting) -That's our train!

-That's our train.

(narrator) As a boy, Dick Van Dyke spent hours in the movie theater carefully studying his favorite physical comics.

If there was a Laurel and Hardy, my mother would have to come and get me because I would sit through two or three runnings of it.

I just love those guys.

(train chuffing) (shouting) This is the last train today!

Come on!

(thudding) (lighthearted music) (narrator) Van Dyke got his first chance to showcase his skills on national television on Pat Boone's variety show in 1958.

(creaking) (squeaking) (squeaking and clattering) (cuckoo chiming, grunting) (audience laughter) Van Dyke's physical skills were unlike any other comedy performer on television.

(whooshing) (audience laughter) (audience laughter) (spirited music) That same year, Van Dyke landed a guest shot on Phil Silvers' show... and buzz began to build.

They had me on that show playing a hillbilly who could pitch with both hands.

(Bilko) Got any more throws like that?

(Hank) Yeah, I got one I call my bender.

-Your bender?

-Yeah, that's in case of a squirrel hiding behind a tree.

I'll show it to ya.

(audience laughter) (Bilko) Wait, hold--the target is over there.

-I know.

-He knows, he knows.

(audience laughter) -Oh, boy!

-Fastball, change of pace, a curve.

It's too good to be true!

I could kill a squirrel with either hand, and he tried to sell me to the Yankees as a pitcher.

-Did you say Yankees?

-Yeah.

I was gonna keep this as a surprise, Hank.

You're gonna get a tryout with the New York Yankees.

(Hank) Oh, I don't reckon I can do that, Sergeant.

My daddy wouldn't hold still for me being on the same side with Yankees.

(Bilko) Oh, wait a minute.

The Civil War's been over 90 years.

(Hank) I'm sorry, Sergeant, but my pappy says General Lee gave up too soon.

Dick Van Dyke is a very adroit man with comedy.

He can do physical comedy, and he does spoken comedy very well.

(narrator) Dick Van Dyke landed his own sitcom in 1961, but the first scripts weren't written to take advantage of his physical comedy skills.

And, so, Van Dyke would try to work in bits each week.

(Dick) We did a lot of improv during the week of rehearsal, physical pieces that I would put in, and by the time we got to showtime, we were so excited to present it.

(vocalist) ♪ Everybody ♪ ♪ Now you're doing the twist ♪ ♪ Everybody ♪ ♪ Gonna be getting a sizzle ♪ He will break into a tap dance at the drop of a hat, and he can do card tricks, and he can do impressions.

He's just wonderful, but he doesn't flaunt it.

(narrator) Physical comedy always has the potential for injury, and The Dick Van Dyke Show was no exception.

Today's modern-day comedian comes out in front of his audience and talks to them in a relaxed--oh!

(audience laughter) I'd sometimes come in on a Saturday to come up with something.

Laughing at people in pain is a manifestation of a deep-seated hostility.

(audience laughter) This scene...

Thank goodness we have reached a point in our civilization today where we no longer laugh at people destroying themselves.

(clattering) (audience laughter) It was one of my favorite things.

I'm very happy to say that you'd have to look all over the world to find someone who would laugh at a man, say, falling down.

Oh no!

(audience laughter) It did hurt, I didn't do it right.

But it's funny to look at.

(jazz horn music) (narrator) The Dick Van Dyke Show was performed in front of a live audience because even for physical comedians, the feedback of an audience is key.

I just don't see how people do comedy shows without an audience because they do half the work.

They're the ones that give you the timing.

You go with their reaction.

And I can't work without an audience.

(Laura) At the very end of the show, I didn't handle myself too well with that Patrick rat.

(Dick) Aw, he got you to say something embarrassing, didn't he?

-What was it?

-That Alan Brady is bald.

(audience laughter) ♪ I just don't understand how people can not have that... ♪ ...you know, that interplay 'cause that's what makes comedy.

Oh, without an audience, I don't know what I would've done.

(narrator) An audience may have been critical for Dick Van Dyke, but the more recent crop of television comedians have eliminated the studio audience altogether.

They represent a new kind of comedy actor, confident in the writing, less worried about instant feedback.

Among the most successful, Tina Fey.

(Liz) I'm not over it!

And now I'm wearing this!

What is the deal with my life?

-Are you imitating me?

-No!

This is what I sound like when I cry!

(Jerry) I think I'm a little insulted!

You're insulted?

I'm crying!

Well, it's mostly this kind of single-camera approach is just what's in fashion right now.

I think, um, that you can make-- I think you can make a very good comedy in front of an audience.

Some people, I feel, think there's a stigma to it, that it's too easy, but you look at shows like Cheers and, well, only Cheers, I guess.

(chuckling) (narrator) Like many modern TV comedians, Tina Fey learned her craft at Chicago's Second City through performances that taught her how to deal with success and failure.

(woman) Kevin, as a former Miss Tennessee, there's two things I know.

One of 'em is that the children are our future, and the other is that people respond to friendliness, and that is why a friendly company... -...is a successful company.

-Yee-haw.

The high feeling of when something actually goes well is great, but almost more valuable is the thrilling free fall of when it goes terribly.

And it just goes terribly, and then you sort of realize, "Well, we didn't die.

Let's just start again."

That is, I think, the thing that's the best for young performers to experience.

(narrator) At Saturday Night Live, Fey was hired as a writer and didn't join the cast for three years.

Two days before Britney Spears' HBO concert from Las Vegas, someone broke into her dressing room and stole the white Elvis-inspired rhinestone jumpsuit that she wore to promote the event.

And you know what?

I'm not giving it back.

(mouthing words) I'll keep it now, it's mine.

(ditzy music) (narrator) When Fey got her own show, 30 Rock, it retained a writer-centric approach.

Okay, are we gonna talk about this like adults, or are you just gonna throw things at me?

All right.

Okay, fine, get it out of your system.

All right, nothing that plugs in, you guys!

Nothing that could really hurt me!

(sloshing) There's a lot of work in that writers' room to think about those jokes and those bits and that story.

(narrator) But that focus on writing doesn't minimize Fey's respect for actors who can make an audience laugh.

Going into something and I know where the jokes are, and when a joke is well-executed, that will make me laugh, but also when there's a little nuance of performance that is sort of an extra gift from the actor.

It's just a small facial thing or a rhythmic thing.

That is... That is just a, you know, an unforeseen gift, 'cause you go in-- mostly, as a writer, you go into it hoping like, "Okay, nobody screw up my jokes."

(narrator) For Tina Fey, comedy acting combines the preparation of a writer and the spontaneity of an improv performer.

(Tina) There's a lot of talk about relaxed readiness, and so I think there's a lot, a lot of preparation, preparation, preparation, and then you want to be in a state of relaxed readiness so that if something spontaneous does happen, you're there and you're capable of seizing that moment.

But I think you get there with a lot of prep work.

(Jack) Good God, Lemon, what is that?

This is how I cry now!

Ever since you made me get that off-brand eye surgery.

Lemon, what have we done to you?

(soft music) It's okay.

Go home and get some rest.

I'll take the hit.

(Liz) I can't let you do that for me.

Let him go.

(gasping) (piano music) (narrator) Like all accomplished comedy actors, Tina Fey recognizes that the best comedy is a reflection of reality, performances that tell the truth while they make us laugh.

(Tina) I think that's the biggest thing you can teach someone is to play real characters that they know or real-- or to portray the world as they see it and not the way they think the audience expects it.

You know, we used to-- Amy Poehler and I used to tour together for the Second City, and we would do these old sketches that were handed to us that, a lot of times, was the wife or the girlfriend, the waitress.

You'd come in and be like, "Honey, well, what's this?"

And, well, I would never do that, so let's chan--let's make up new ones.

(Sarah) Good evening, my fellow Americans.

I was so excited when I was told Senator Clinton and I would be addressing you tonight.

(Hillary) And I was told I would be addressing you alone.

(audience laughter) (soft music) (narrator) There is no single path to acting funny.

TV has a long history of physical comedians, method actors, and improvisers.

Each performer is unique, but together, they've kept us laughing for 50 years.

Is it rewarding?

Yeah.

But is it hard work?

Oh, yeah.

And as you get older, it's like it's harder work, you know?

I had heart surgery halfway through the last tour.

"Almost killed you."

"I'm back, hee-hee, way to go."

I'm getting letters from third generations now.

That show is still running around the world.

And I get letters from kids who enjoy the show.

-Good feeling.

-That is fun to remind yourself that, uh, that, uh, jokes can be enjoyed by a live audience.

If the audience doesn't laugh, then it's not funny.

The end of it, there's no more discussion.

I'd love to know what's next.

I can't wait, it's so exciting.

It really is exciting.

How often, how often... can you say to yourself watching whatever scene it is... ♪ ...that puts you on the floor and you say, "God, man, I don't know when I've laughed as much as I did tonight"?

That's how rare it is.

♪ (narrator) They are the pioneers of television.

♪ Have I done a lot of Shakespearean plays?

No.

But could I?

With help.

With the right director.

"You could, dear boy.

Don't be afraid to enunciate."

I met Laurence Olivier when I went and I did the first Academy Awards.

And they said, "Mr. Olivier, this is Robin Williams."

"Hello."

And he said, "Are you wearing makeup?"

And I said, "Yes, Mr.

Olivier."

And he said, "Don't.

It makes you look effeminate."

"Thank you, Larry."

Kept that in mind.

(upbeat jazz music) ♪ (whooshing) (bright music)