Dave's "oh, for the love of God please kill me now" expression is priceless. All that's missing for this to be a Late Night parody of a musical number is Larry 'Bud' & stupid pets...
"I was awful, I was horrible, I was horrible, I was horrible. I dreaded it, I was lucky to have a job.... I couldn't stand it.... The humiliation was instant."
Dave figured he only has a few late night shows left, so he let Michael Keaton show part of this clip on The Late Show the other night. Took me hours to get to sleep after watching it.
I just saw it & dave hid under the desk for only 30 sec that they showed. Micheal said for years the talk show people wanted him to show it & he felt bad for dave & did not want to do it to him bc he knew how much he hated it at the time. Micheal is actually into it dave is so stiff rofl. He got the choreography right. I guess they are singing live.
This is hysterical! You can see Dave laughing and turning his face downwards right from the start and then throughout. Even beats his forays as a Gong Show panel member!
Carol Burnett was the first woman to star in an hour long variety show on network TV, and she did it successfully for 11 years. By comparison, this Mary Tyler Moore variety effort was frankly embarrassing. I am a great admirer of Moore's contribution to Television comedy through two all time great sit-coms. But it is not easy to pull off variety, and evidently Moore is not one of those blessed with the gift. This is pretty bad.
Exactly not Carol Burnett's fault at all, Mary Tyler Moore has discussed this short lived show a couple times in interviews. She had always wanted to host a variety show, but by the time The Mary Tyler Moore Show ended the era of variety shows was on it's way out and hers just didn't cut it.
The context is the 1970s, not a gracious decade in America. When people get cynical, shows such as this reek of "that cute stuff was yesterday" and the channel is changed. Also, it is impossible to assemble a cast with people like the young David Letterman and then sound like a barbershop quartet.
This is very indicative of Mary. Publicly, a trouper who goes to work rain or shine with that optimism like this version. But behind the scenes, the Wings version is how she really was. Optimisism fighting darkness, constantly.
Lisa Johnson Watching Letteman here is just hilarious. I can't stop laughing. You can just see his mind working "I just need to survive this number to get asked back next week and get that paycheck". Oh my. Tears in eyes.
+Lisa Johnson You can detect some embarrassment from Keaton too just before he has to walk up and say his stupid line. Definite deep breath taken for that walk of shame.
Oh my god I've been a Letterman fan for around 32 years and I never knew this existed! Dave talked about it on the Norm McDonald Netfilx show which led me here. Holy crap this was painful to watch!
Agreed. Particularly painful for Letterman, but not necessarily everyone. Btw, I'm not a fan of this skit or show. But I do love MTM. And some people do like this kind of entertainment.
Yeah, but they cheered him up after the show was over by telling how much fun he'd have on his dressing coach of his own show in his own theatre with dozens of naïve little interns. OOPS, I meant, Bill Clinton. No, wait, I didn't. Never before realized that these two creeps are almost identical.
I have probably only seen the Letterman show probably less than 10 times in my life but one of the times I watched I saw a clip of this and thought it was hilarious. I tried searching for it years ago but wasn't uploaded. Thanks for the upload lol
That's James Hampton, who was in the star-studded great junkfilm HANGAR 18 w Gary Collins, Robert Vaughn, Joseph Campanella, Darren McGavin and...hey, I said it was star-studded! www.manoronmovies.com/Hangar18.htm provides a review.
Hi, thanks so much. As as dedicated Letterman fan, I knew of this clip, and his work on MTM, and it was neat to watch it. THis was not his preferred type of entertainment format, and you can see it by the embarassment on his face
For real. This show (called "Mary"), which was purely a variety show, got cancelled after only four broadcasts. I think it was the first show of the '78 fall season to get the axe, although CBS allowed MTM to come back a few months later and try again with "The Mary Tyler Moore Hour," which was sort of a sitcom/variety show hybrid. That show, I think, lasted 11 episodes.
I simply adored Mary Tyler Moore. She was a great interpreter. I only wish that someone had had the guts to see in advance, that this was crap, and tell her. She was not Barbra Streisand or Judy Garland...she couldn' t sing or dance. She was a serious comedy/drama actress, not a show girl. Why nobody could avoid this mess?
That person who tried to blackmail Letterman by threatening to reveal his affairs should have threatened to reveal this tape instead. Dave would have paid the money!
LMAO! I remember watching this back in the day, couldn't believe one of my fave Wings songs was being butchered. Watching Letterman in this is classic.
Butchered is putting it mildly. Didn't care for the song myself, but once I realized it took me more than a minute to even recognize it, I felt a little of your pain.
Mary had always wanted to do a variety show, but unfortunately by the time the MTM Show went off the air the era of the Variety Show was pretty much over and she really didn't have much of a chance.
Geez, couldn't the producers have shelled out the entertainment union minimum for some starving singer/dancers to go out there for this? I'm sure that was what Letterman and Keaton were thinking. But I guess it was obligatory. Either way, very funny to watch, and thanks for posting, joycollector!
I wish I could go back in time and be a behind the scenes person on these 70’s variety shows. I wanna see the beginning to end process of an episode of shows like this. To have grown people do those cheesy renditions of great songs. The silly dancing and costumes. When the stars of these shows were presented these idea, did they ever object? Or since it was the 70’s it just seemed like the thing to do?
It seems to me Dave would rather discuss the "missing border between Indiana and Ohio". Very interesting; I've been looking for this period of Letterman
I don't find this cheesy at all, it's just pure entertainment. If any of the "future" "stars" are embarrassed by it, then they've gotten to arrogantly big for their own britches! Mary was a sweet, talented and classy lady!
Omg!! no wonder dave & micheal seem so friendly when he had him on the show. How the hell did dave of all people get in this ? Lol. Damn 1978 singing & dancing with micheal Keaton behind Mtm this is why you tube is so amazing. Please tell me to screw with dave they played this on his show. Rofl hey when ur starting out ull do anything to get a credit on that resume. Micheal is pretty good & so cute !
"Cool, Calm &Contentious" are the collected essays dipped in sardonic venom, written by Merrill Markoe, who evidently felt a great need to delouse herself of this awful self-inflicted legacy of unadulterated gollygee pizzaz (even if only due to guilt by association. She is NOT in the video above, according to CBS: --- www.cbsnews.com/pictures/michael-keaton/6/ ).
Why can't I stop watching this? (I came here after searching for MTM stuff... MNDOT is having a contest to name snowplows & she's in the running... Yes, there may soon be a plow named Mary Tyler Moore on Minnesota highways...)
@@smurvin he is giving it his all though. Letterman is like a stiff board. I saw this & wondered since keaton did Dave 's show so many times if they ever goofed on dave with this & they did I'm guessing in one of his last shows. Dave said he hated it & every week they had these choreographers come in & teach them the songs & steps & he said he prayed that please let this week be the one we dont have to do this. Dave hid under the desk when they played it rofl. He said he always refused doing snl bc of this. I doubt they would have had dave singing & dancing. The steps they are doing reminds me of the plays we did & they actually got some ex rockette in to teach us stuff just like this. It's so funny bc our school was catholic so it went from k to 8th grade & the little kids loved doing it & we loved it til 8th grade. We started just hating it esp at that awkward age . So I can only imagine what dave was thinking. He said one time they were dressed as the village people. I feel bad for Keaton bc this got cancelled after 4 episodes & the next year he did some show I never heard of called like working stiffs with jim belushi that got yanked after 3 episodes. Once actors hit it big they have a dream job but it shows u how hard it is to make it big. Keaton obviously is a very talented actor doing comedy & drama he is batman for godsakes. So imagine all the talented people who just didnt get that big break. Or how many times ur rejected or get a spot & get cancelled.
Charles Bukowski thanks !! incredible .. and she singing that while 9 and 11 shirts appears .. someone really think that this is a coincidence ? no way ..
This was at the very very beginning of his career. He came out to LA, started at The Comedy Store... and was getting some notice, so started taking whatever gigs he could, not knowing where they would lead. TV show? With MTM? Sure.. He was still doing the Comedy Store then. A great book, I'm Dying Up Here, a must read. Chronicles that time frame back then. And the backstory on this, is in there.
Dave I swear I did not release this tape you paid me my blackmail money the first of every month for the past 40 years know I will have to find a job unless I can find if you made a guest appearance on the Brady bunch variety hour
