Robin Williams: Ladies and gentlemen, it's time to pump neurons.
We are about to enter the domain of the human mind.
James Lipton: How do you explain the mental reflexes
-that you deploy with such awesome speed? -(whistles)
Are you thinking faster than the rest of us?
-What the hell is going on? -(audience laughs)
(cheers, applause)
Jesus. (laughing)
"What is it about your mind?
"What is it that does this thing to you?
Try to explain yourself!"
(squeaks)
Comes from a deep part inside myself
that was actually looking for my mother,
but yet I saw that moment when she looked up there,
and I went, "Okay, I'll be funny for her.
Okay, that's fine, work that way."
Come back from that, realize after a while
that I want to be accepted.
"You like me. You really like me."
No, it's not that. I can be trained.
I can show you how intelligent I am.
I can use a word like "delicatessen"
and know what it means.
(laughter)
Or "invertebrate."
Or "inveterate." (chuckles)
Or "degenerate." (skeevy laugh)
-But all of that... -(audience laughter)
...is all part of it, because it's all part of the mind
that actually flows like that, because I realize
that the human mind is a three-and-a-half pound gland
that pumps neurons constantly and deals with itself
by responding to stimulus. That's what we're designed to do,
evolving slowly. Even Darwin's going, "I have hopes!
I had such high hopes!"
It's all part of it, because I believe
the human mind is adapting and evolving slowly but surely
but I'm trying not to speak that fast,
because eventually, you have to catch up.
Lipton: Wow.
♪ ♪
Larry Grobel: Do you have any fears?
Robin: I guess it'd be that fear that if I felt like
I was just becoming... not just dull, but a rock.
That I still couldn't spark.
Then I'd start to worry.
Where are my glasses?
-They're on your face. -Oh. Thank you.
Robin: What you do is kind of keep yourself fresh.
You don't burn out. That's a never-ending struggle.
♪ ♪
-We didn't have water when I was growing up, Dave. -Letterman: Is that right?
My mother and father would have to take hydrogen and oxygen and shove it together.
-Made your own water. Wow. -Made our own water!
Isn't it interesting in the '80s, you meet someone you like,
you say, "Gosh, Helen, I-- I really care about you.
Can I have some blood and urine?"
And you think eventually-- you think sex will eventually be...
(blows) "Uh, Helen, I'm in the airlock now."
"Fine, Harry, leave the sperm in the tray. I'll get it tomorrow."
Inappropriate anecdotes on a celebrity talk show.
So I said, "Get off me, Grandma. I'm done."
Famous Hollywood roles as played by Carol Channing.
(mimics Channing) "Well, surely you must be the Son of God."
(audience cheering)
Robin: This is Elmer Fudd
sings Bruce Springsteen.
(mimics Elmer) ♪ I'm dwiving in my caw ♪
♪ I tuwn on the wadio ♪
♪ I pull you a wittle cwoser ♪
♪ You say no ♪
♪ You say you don't wike it... ♪
Robin: Risking, for me, it's always been
kind of part of the thing of just trying different things.
It's the process of the work peeling away again,
you think you're great, and then something comes along
and goes, "You're not that hot."
But it's always that thing that keeps you moving forward.
Cameraman: I'm sorry, you have two hairs--
There's... hairs are sticking up.
-Oh shit, man. -(laughter)
How fucked up is that?
Hair is sticking up? (gasps)
Shit. We have to do it all over now.
This is bullshit. Two hairs?
Fuck you, man. We were into a groove.
Two hairs. Blow me, dude!
Two hairs. I can see you looking at the monitor going,
"Can someone..."
Bob, normally, it's usually like a mic shadow,
but two fucking hairs? Jesus Christ.
Is it okay now, Bob? Now, we'll start again.
It's better that we go again. Take two...
without the two hairs.
You want to start again?
Shall we go from the top?
♪ ♪
I was so fucking quiet.
My father was kind of very intense.
He was always on the road, because he was working for Ford Motor Company.
He had to go back and forth all over the Midwest
to take care of all of these dealerships.
But every time he came back,
he would bring me some kind of--
like a small car or a tank
or something, and I'd be like, "Dad's home!"
So that was my connection
with my father.
My mother was a comedy maven.
She was very entertaining.
Just seeing her being funny with other people.
I think that was the major thing.
♪ ♪
We were moving a lot because of my father.
We lived in this big place for a while in Detroit.
This huge house.
I was lonely.
There were no friends around.
I was an only child, raised by,
basically, the maid for a long time.
(in different voices) -Some toys to play. -Look at me!
-One for the campfire. -I want the green planet.
-Mine! -Give it to me! Give it to me!
-Help me! Help me! -Come along, dear.
Daddy, I can't carry bags. Bags heavy.
(normal voice) I went to an all-boys private school.
I was as serious a student as you could be,
you know, cum laude society and the whole thing.
And an athlete.
I remember the motto of my private school was
(speaks Latin) "In sound mind, in sound body."
It's a bit like the school in Dead Poet's Society,
and I was one of the students going, yes.
Jack Parr (on TV): The wild, wild man, my friend Jonathan Winters.
-♪ ♪ -(audience applauds)
Robin: I saw my father watching The Tonight Show,
with Jonathan Winters.
My dad was a sweet man but not an easy laugh.
Jonathan Winters (on TV): I did a thing that, uh,
a lot of us... probably would like to do.
Maybe a few of us don't.
I don't know. I'll just have to ask you:
Did you ever undress in front of a dog?
(audience laughs)
Robin: My dad lost it, and I went, "Who is this guy?
You made the great white father laugh."
Do something with a stick.
Watch him do a routine with the stick.
You can give him anything.
(whooshing)
Well, that was a pretty good cast, wasn't it, Bob?
I think we're onto something this time. Mm-hmm.
I'm sorry, Margaret. Try to swim in.
Doctor, I'm not kidding.
I seen them beetles,
and this is one of their feelers.
(laughter)
Thoop.
The United Nations...
now recognizes the delegate from NASA-Land.
(hums)
-Oh! Mr. Williams! -Elmo.
What are you gonna do with that stick?
Oh, there's lots of things
you can do with a stick, Elmo.
Hey, you maybe could be playing hockey with it.
(whooshing)
Yeah, I been goalie now
for about three years,
and it hasn't affected me.
Maybe it could be like a baton.
(imitating Lawrence Welk): There you are, conducting a full orchestra.
Thank you, Madonna,
for that lovely lingerie melody.
I better go back. We'll never be able to do that.
(laughter)
I realize.
Or it could be a cane.
(mimics Ronald Regan) Well, Nancy and I
are just happy to be here.
Or you can play Pinocchio: The Home Game.
I have two Academy Awards, Elmo.
Stuff like that, Elmo, just simple things.
-Ah. Uh-huh. Oh. -Yeah.
And I'll tell you what I'm gonna do with this stick.
-What? -I'm gonna give it to you.
Oh. Thank you, Mr. Robbins.
Mr. Robbins?
I'm taking the stick back, Elmo.
(laughter)
(Robin laughing)
Elmo: I only had three lines!
♪ ♪
Robin: When I was 16, we moved to San Francisco.
♪ To everything, turn, turn, turn... ♪
Robin: Boom! Everything opened up. The whole world just changed.
♪ Turn, turn, turn... ♪
Robin: Everything was loose, sexually loose,
everything, and I was going, "Well, okay!"
From yin to yang in 24 hours.
♪ A time to be born, a time to die ♪
♪ A time to plant... ♪
We were going from Detroit, Middle West, all-boys school,
to an open-ended San Francisco high school.
It's this incredibly relaxed thing.
There was no discipline at all.
It was like we had gestalt history classes.
"Can you see Lincoln? He's in the back of the room."
♪ To everything, turn, turn, turn ♪
♪ There is a season, turn... ♪
Robin: I was in a senior class parody
of all of the stuff that was going on at this school.
I did an impression of a teacher who was pretty out there.
His name was Mr. Lavezzo.
-(on radio): Tino Lavezzo and his lovely dystopic... -(crowd cheering)
Enacting history, actually having
the Battle of Hastings. It's everywhere, behind
the chairs, chanting "We knew we were there!"
Robin: That was the first time I really had a performance.
(on radio): You're my friend, come on over here.
Robin: I never really started to even
be funny openly on that level.
We as human beings, we are driven by the same sexual desire.
Men, you know you have a tiny creature living between your legs
that has no memory and no conscience. You know that.
-(laughter) -You have no control!
It should be a separate creature.
You should be able to take it off,
poom, put him on the ground.
Take him for a walk. He's got the rollers.
He'll be like... (babbles)
Make it a different beast!
Wouldn't it be nice if you could go into a bar,
buy him a drink once in awhile?
There'd be a big bar up here, a little bar down here for him.
Go into the bar, yeah, put him out.
He's looking up at you with that one good eye,
like, "How ya been, baby?
"Sorry about last night. I guess I got nervous,
"fired off a couple of warning shots.
"What the hell?
"If you didn't try and strangle me,
"I'd have had a better chance!
"What the hell? I can't go back in there, man!
"That's some scary stuff!
"I'm not going back without a wetsuit
"and a mining helmet. I'll tell you that.
"You better work on that! I'm not going back!
"Hell no, I won't go! I--
"Hey, forget what I said. Who's that?
I'm going down here. You talk to her. Down scope." (whirring)
♪ ♪
My first year at college, I went to Claremont Men's College
to study Political Science.
It's an all men's school, and the only girls
are at this other school called Pitzer,
and the only classes where you can be with girls are there.
They had an improvisational theater class,
and I went, "That's where the ladies are."
♪ ♪
Was not going to any of my Political Science classes.
My father said, "I'm not paying for this shit anymore."
Come back home to Marin, and we'll go to the local junior college."
That was the beginning of studying acting and taking that path.
♪ ♪
Mark Rasmussen: Robin Goodfellow, a fellow of infinite jest.
He had to be told to shut up once in awhile
because we never could get through rehearsals.
We had been invited to do Taming of the Shrew,
a western version of it, at the Edinburgh Festival.
He went to Edinburgh with us as a late replacement.
It was fantastic, and we had a great time.
And I really got to know him in Edinburgh.
♪ ♪
We had a lot of great press.
We got the gold. We were the best production at the festival.
We did a royal command performance,
and Robin's eyes were this big, you know?
For all of us, I think, at that time,
there was nothing on the blackboard. We were young.
There was nothing written,
and... that kind of experience in life,
you only go through...
you know, once if you're lucky.
Stanley Wilson: I met Robin the day he came to New York to come to Juilliard.
My dear friend Mark Rasmussen,
who was a good friend of his, introduced us.
He just stood out in a way that nobody else quite did.
(rock music playing)
John Houseman: An actor is an actor!
At the Juilliard School, people ask,
"Why don't you have a course
in movie acting or television acting?"
And that's nonsense. An actor is an actor.
Wilson: John Houseman was running the school then.
Robin and Chris Reeve came in
as advanced students in our third year.
♪ ♪
Christopher was, you know, a preppy from New England,
and Robin was kind of a crazy hippie from Marin County.
Robin: First day you know,
I'm wearing, like, sandals and shorts--
pretty obvious where I'm from.
I'm like, "So this is really interesting.
There's a certain intensity."
I knew that it was supposed to be this incredible
kind of English training in America.
Attention on a different level--
movement, vocal, acting.
Getting this great set of tools that you can work with.
♪ Are you reelin' in the years... ♪
Rasmussen: We didn't have a lot of things, and we didn't care.
We had our art form. We had the work.
That's where our focus was, and that was demanded.
You know, Houseman really worked
the hell out of all of us
all the time, thank God.
♪ Are you gatherin' up the tears ♪
♪ Have you had enough of mine? ♪
Robin: Moments of "Great. Oh God, this is amazing,"
and moments of "What the hell am I doing?"
I had this schtick that I worked out with a little stocking cap.
It was very tight, but if I moved
my eyebrows, the thing went, "Boop!"
I remember it was the first piece of physical business
that I saw Houseman laugh, and I went,
(gasps) "Buddha laughed."
Being trained as an actor--
that helped me a lot just to play.
Hello. Who's got a scene idea for us? Right over here.
Man: Somebody having a close encounter.
Okay, just a close encounter of any kind?
-Any kind. -Right. Good. Okay.
Robin: When I came home from Juilliard,
I started doing improvisational comedy
as kind of a response to not finding acting work.
-(high-pitched): Yo, mama. -(laughter)
Robin: I started to be able to do comedy based on suggestions,
which is this idea of, "Wait a minute, you're creating it."
-And that was addicting. -Do you want to play a game?
Sure, let's play Scrabble, okay?
Okay. You want to be the board or the pieces?
-I'll be the board. -Robin: Freeze!
-Esmeralda, why do you only visit me on Sunday? -(laughter)
The feeling, the rapport was incredible.
The instant meshing with the audience.
It's like sex without the guilt.
And God created man.
(piano plays note)
-I feel better now. -(laughter)
And then you went from the workshop to actually clubs.
(performing) I can't sit down! I'm too excited!
I drove all the way from Squealer, Idaho, to be here.
Well, I drove my truck, Mary Beth.
-(audience laughs) -It's a big ol' sucker. It's huge.
Valerie Velardi: He was at the Holy City Zoo, bartending.
He filled in as a bartender so that he could get up on stage and play.
He had a French accent,
offered me a drink, chatted me up,
and was absolutely delightful.
♪ ♪
He asked me for a ride home.
He was speaking French, I was teasing him,
and we had a kiss,
mmm, and I just knew I was going to see him again.
I was just finishing up my masters degree
at Mills College in Dance.
So I was free,
and I was supporting myself as a waitress.
He was always looking for a connection,
And if he needed to pull out another character or an accent,
he was shameless, he would just do it.
Robin (foreign accent): America, beach and balls country. Thank you.
-Fuck a duck! -(audience laughs)
Thank you, cheap shot, no way.
(normal voice): Some of the characters people really love.
A character can be a comic actor more than a comedian.
I don't tell jokes. I just use characters as a vehicle for me,
but I seldom just talk as myself.
I was his personal audience,
and I would help him hone material.
Robin: 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."
(laughter)
Velardi: After being in San Francisco for six months,
it was so clear that he was developing his talent
and growing in a particular direction.
("Heat Wave" playing)
♪ Whenever I'm with him ♪
♪ Something inside ♪
♪ Starts to burning ♪
♪ And I'm filled with desire, could it be... ♪
Letterman: I had moved from Indiana
and went immediately to The Comedy Store.
Here's what I loved about California then:
Governor Jerry Brown was dating Linda Ronstadt.
That's the California you want.
That's what California is supposed to be,
and it was exactly that.
♪ Soft, low, sweet and plain, I feel... ♪
Letterman: It was dynamic, it was creative, it was exciting.
We were kids, it was silly and it was fun,
and it was the best time of my life.
My name is Dave Letterman,
and originally, I am from the State of Indiana.
And you know, when I was growing up,
the one thing that I'll never forget,
what I'll always remember as long as I live,
is when Dad used to tease me with the power tools.
-Did that happen to you folks a lot? -(laughter)
Letterman: When we first saw Robin on stage,
we were skeptical,
and we made it kind of a project
to keep our eye on him.
(foreign accent) This is a quick suppression, a Spanish fly.
(laughter)
Are there any Spanish people here tonight?
Okay, we can do it!
Here we go, the Spanish fly.
-(babbling quickly) -(laughter)
In my head, my first sight of him
was that he could fly
because of the-- the energy.
It was like observing an experiment.
Something special. First a little toot for me.
-(toots) Okay. -(laughter)
We are ready.
(plays harmonica)
Everybody, shake from side to side, come on, now.
What's the matter? You would do it if I was blind.
Here we go.
(mic feedback whines)
(normal voice) One of the first paying gigs I had
was this place called The Laugh Stop.
It's their opening night.
The mics go down, they die,
and they're going "What the fuck do we do?"
I think, "I don't need a mic."
I just started fucking around.
I'm going in the audience,
and I was loud enough because I'd been trained
to be loud that I could survive.
I see a sister.
Do you feel the need to be healed?
-Woman: Yes. -I know you can walk without that chair.
(laughter)
Dear sister, give me your hand.
I hope to God you're not a real cripple.
All I could really do was hang on to the microphone for dear life,
and here was a guy who could levitate.
Are you ready now to walk for Jesus?
Can you do it?
Oh my God! Over here boys!
It's incredible!
Letterman: We knew that whatever it was Robin was doing,
we weren't gonna get close to that.
And we were frightened that, "Oh my,
"maybe we've come out here at just exactly the wrong time
"when everything was changing,
and all we had was our stupid little jokes."
Come inside my mind and see what it's like
when a comedian eats the big one.
Don't be afraid. (squeaks)
-(laughter) -Come on in.
Phase in Amrac, opening sequence B. Amrac phase-in now.
Hey, nice to be here.
(laughter)
Easy audience! Move on to dynamite second routine 1B!
Phase in now. Amrac phase-in routine
"Open Response" 1B. Amrac C and sequence A.
How 'bout that Oaxacan, eh?
(laughter)
Mayday! Mayday! Mayday!
(mimics alarm blaring)
All systems overload! Anything goes!
Phase in sequence 2, Vegas pity response 1B.
♪ Send in the clowns ♪
Not buying the bullshit! Career really over now!
All systems overload! Ego check!
Everything failing! Lips?
(babbles)
Amrac, phase in now! Relieve subconscious.
Mayday! Mayday!
(whooshes, breathes heavily)
Well, fuck you! What do you want from me anyway?
(laughter, applause)
Man: Yes!
Good evening. People ask me,
"Is comedy as much fun as I say it is?"
-(laughter) -You know, I'm wondering...
Bennett Tramer: Are on you on wide shot?
-Woman: No. -Tramer: You should zoom back.
(indistinct chatter)
You know, people wonder,
comedy and television... (mumbles)
Woman: Ooh! Oh, I'm sorry.
Tramer: Being a writer for Robin's standup
is like being a pinch hitter for Barry Bonds.
You're not necessarily needed,
except for special circumstances.
But it's interesting to see how he would build a bit.
He had a lightning-fast mind,
but it wasn't like everything he did came to him that night.
There was real work and preparation.
There was a real thoughtful, analytical process behind it.
It probably took him longer to explain it to me
than coming together in his mind.
Excuse me, sir, we'd like to buy your right front tire.
(indistinct chatter)
Tramer: Stop, we'll take it right off here.
Excuse me, we're conducting an experiment
in accidents on highways caused by distractions.
(laughter)
Tramer: He used to introduce me as his best friend,
and I hadn't known him that long.
♪ ♪
I think he needed a best friend.
Robin: Madam please, please.
I'm making a plea for love. Please, madam.
(indistinct chatter)
(Tramer laughs)
♪ ♪
Larry Grobel: Early in life, did you have a fear of abandonment?
Robin: Oh yeah. It's a primal fear for any child...
and then it dictates a lot of how you deal with life.
McLaurin Smith-Williams: My students know that he was my brother,
and they always have.
I've never tried to hide it,
but I also don't try
to advertise it either.
Robin and I shared a mom.
I was my mother's son by her first marriage.
Shortly after I was born, I was sent to live
with her parents in the South.
My grandparents, who had been raising me as their child,
suddenly informed me that I had this other family and a brother that I didn't know I had.
And when we met, we met as strangers.
He was eight.
He was probably not quite sure what to make of me.
He was showing me all of his little toy soldiers and everything like that.
I believe Robin already knew about Todd.
Marina Zenovich: Tell me how you are related to Robin Williams.
I was married to Robin's brother, Todd...
for nearly 30 years.
Todd's mother was married to Robin's dad
for only a couple of years.
Todd was a very little boy when they divorced.
Mac, he and Robin had the same mom, different dads.
Todd and Robin had the same dad, different moms.
All three of them had some things in common
and just loved the fact that they were related.
McLaurin: Even though there were three brothers,
we were all raised as only children.
To be honest, I think that none of us would have turned out the way we did,
had it been-- had we grown up together.
Growing up by yourself a lot,
you can either kind of go nuts
or you have a very comedic attitude toward it.
When you're in school and you don't have too many friends,
or this, that, and the other, that's a way of kind of circumventing.
There's a flip side to that
because there's a depressive side to that--
that kind of personality too.
There's a strong element of that in our family.
♪ ♪
Robin: My mother, she would do weird things,
like cut a rubber band, stuff it in her nose,
and be at a dinner party, and go.. . (sneezes) "Oh dear."
And my dad would go, (flatly) "Great, Laurie. That's really funny."
Oh my, you're gonna do this!
-Oh no! Oh God! -(laughter)
You know, we embarrassed your dad. I did for years.
Yeah, that and me making this noise at dinner.
-Yeah. No. -He didn't like that either.
He doesn't take lightly to our--
-And the whoopie cushions. -(laughs)
-Fun too. -You remember whoopie cushions?
We had a couple of those that we'd bring in.
They've been going strong for 50 years,
-and they're still funny. -They are.
Nothing like a good whoopie cushion
before a press conference, right, Mr. Reagan?
That's right. Put a little water in it, too. It's really effective.
-Oh, God, Ma! -(laughter)
Put a little water in it and then watch!
Not only does it make a noise, it stains!
Oh, there's a fun one.
Laurie: I think Robin had a happy childhood.
I hope. You never really know.
He was very isolated,
so he had to entertain himself a lot.
♪ ♪
Elayne Boosler: I don't know when I met Robin,
but the next thing I knew was
he lived in my apartment with me.
He had an apartment, I never went there.
I didn't even know his address.
He lived in my apartment.
Robin started pursuing me.
I had never been so pursued in my life,
and he would not leave me alone.
and I thought, "Okay, well, I'm in for fun."
♪ ♪
He was very quiet in real life.
You wouldn't know, if you had just met him in the daytime
and spoke to him, what he became at night.
Robin: This is the hormone blues-in. Here we go.
(mimics harmonica)
(deep voice) Yeah.
♪ Went to bed last night, with hair upon my chest ♪
(mimics harmonica)
(high-pitched) ♪ I woke up this morning ♪
♪ With a couple of beautiful breasts ♪
♪ You know I'm, I'm ♪
(deep voice) ♪ Changing ♪
Boosler: I knew that Robin was running around
when I wasn't around, but I didn't care!
It didn't bother me.
But all the comics were so caring for me,
and they said, "You know, we think he has
a girlfriend in San Francisco."
And I said, "Well, I'll ask him."
And I said, "Do you have a girlfriend in San Francisco?"
"Oh no." I said, "Listen, don't lie to me.
I hate lies, tell the truth. I don't mind."
"Oh no, oh no."
So we're in The Improv one night,
and Jay said, "Robin, you should be honest with Elayne,
tell her if you have a girlfriend somewhere else."
And he said, "Look, man. Look, man."
"I'm just looking for a little bit of balance.
I'm just trying to find a little bit of balance."
And Jay Leno said, "Yeah, but you're using your dick as a fulcrum."
♪ ♪
After we broke up, he married his girlfriend.
Velardi: We jumped on each other's bandwagon.
We were a good team.
We were having an adventure.
And then, everything changed.
♪ Sunday, Monday, Happy Days ♪
♪ Tuesday, Wednesday, Happy Days ♪
♪ Thursday, Friday, Happy Days ♪
♪ The weekend comes, my cycle hums... ♪
Scott Marshall: Growing up, I loved Happy Days,
loved Fonzi. In 1977,
I was eight years old, and Star Wars came out...
and I stopped watching Happy Days.
My dad said, "Why don't you wanna watch Happy Days anymore?"
And I said, "There's no spaceman on it."
He went to the writer's room on Happy Days
and said, "Scotty wants a spaceman!"
And all the writers rolled their eyes, "Oh, what a great idea.
A spaceman, okay, how can we do this?"
My Aunt Ronnie, who was in charge of casting,
told my dad about a comedian
doing stand-up on the street corner, with a hat
that people put money in.
My dad said, "You want me to hire a kid,
"who stands on the street corner with a hat
"on a primetime network television show--
"a hit show, number one in the ratings--
"I'm gonna put a kid who stands
"on the sidewalk with a hat,
that's who I'm gonna put on?"
And Ronnie said...
"It's a pretty full hat."
-(babbles) -(door shuts)
What do you do, you just use that to scare people with?
No, keeps the rain off my head.
(audience laughs)
Are you Richie Cunningham?
Oh yeah. Yeah, that-- that's me.
-Is this your house? -Uh-huh.
Ee-ee, Ee-ee.
Wait a minute. Who are you?
I am Mork from Ork. Que pasa?
(babbles)
Marshall: The episode, in front of the live audience,
it got a standing ovation.
All 300 people stood up and applauded Robin
when he finished that episode.
♪ ♪
Robin: ABC has a commitment to Paramount,
and they have to honor it.
If they have a series that falls out,
they have to put something on the air from Paramount.
No pilot, just-- you gotta put it on.
And they went, "Oh fuck," so they scrambled.
They'd say, "Okay, we have this character,
Mork, which tested very well,"
and they had Pam, a series where she played a nun...
Pam Dawber: Called Sister Terri,
who had been a gang leader,
and kind of talked like this.
And she was a little tough,
but she was a nun.
(laughs) And it was terrible.
Marshall: My dad took footage of Pam Dawber from the pilot,
in the nun outfit, cut it together
with Robin on Happy Days- -
just literally spliced it together--
and that was the pilot. It was a $63 dollar pilot.
Robin: And they went, "Fine, whatever, just throw it on the air."
They didn't think it had a fighting chance of ever living.
They're announcing the fall line up,
and it says, "ABC announces
"Mork & Mindy, starring Robin Williams and Pam Dawber.
Spaceman lives with girlfriend in apartment."
And I went, "Oh my God! This sounds terrible.
Who is this Robin Williams anyway?"
Howard Storm: Robin's manager called Robin.
He said, "Robin, we got 22 shows, guaranteed,
and you're gonna get $1500 a week."
And Robin went, "Wow!"
And then Buddy said, "Schmuck, $15,000."
(laughs)
Robin was happy with the $1,500.
He never made that kind of money.
(theme music playing)
Nanu, nanu.
-(helmet thuds) -Shazbot!
Tramer: Robin was a little nervous.
"All of that energy is sure to translate.
"My comedy is so big, and...
you're sure it'll translate onto a small screen?"
(whistling)
Necrotons! Warning! Mayday! Mayday!
Red alert! Dive! In the bunker, in the bunker!
Hit 'em up. We're going to Missouri. Whoo!
Marshall: He would run around the stage, you know.
He would run around and do crazy things all the time,
and there was union cameramen.
He would do something great, my dad would go,
"Did you get that? Did you get that?"
The cameraman would say, "He didn't come by here."
"You gotta capture this. He's a genius."
And the cameraman said, "If he's such a genius,
he could hit his mark."
And so my dad said, "Wow, this is-- gotta figure this out."
The sitcom, up until then, always three camera.
So he brought in a fourth camera,
kind of a handheld camera,
just to follow Robin.
And that became the standard.
Now, every sitcom
has four cameras now because of that.
Well, this week, sir, I learned that on Earth
things aren't always what they appear to be.
Orson: What does this...
You've got the script in your hand,
motherfucker, and you're blowin' it?
(audience laughs)
Tramer: The taping of Mork & Mindy became like the show to go to.
It was like a three-hour Robin Williams marathon.
Care for some iguana jerky?
No, asshole.
(audience laughs)
Hey, it's a self-improvement course!
"Evelyn Wood Speed Orgasm."
Says if you've read this by now, you've already come.
-Why'd you laugh at me? -(laughs)
You were gonna say, "What an asshole."
Now, I didn't. I let you say it!
(laughter)
Storm: Robin was just flying,
I mean, he was the hottest ticket in town.
Storm: Whatever makes you happy, monsieur.
Well, we can't do that now.
(audience laughs)
So many lines going through my mind.
I don't know who I am!
Look! And...
(audience laughs, cheers)
Storm: All of a sudden, he was getting all this attention,
making money, and doing whatever he wanted to do.
-Action, baby. -Oh, I got--
-Oh, I'm sorry. -It's happening.
Boy, have I got a subtext going, you don't know!
Okay, wait, wait. Wow!
4.5 on the Richter scale!
(both babbling)
♪ I remember you ♪
Hi, Mr. Houseman. Juilliard really paid off.
Until next week, Orson, knock knock.
-Orson: Who's there? -Cohen.
Orson: Cohen who?
"Cohen" fuck yourself. Good night.
Eric Idle: I first clapped eyes on him in 1980.
He came on stage,
and it was just like
he took the place apart.
He just absolutely--
I've never seen anything like it.
He just completely commanded it.
He just made them all laugh and laugh and laugh,
and he had one persistent heckler.
And he made the entire audience pray
for little Timmy at the back, that he might die.
And it was just so hilarious.
He just-- the entire audience praying for the death
of this heckler at the back of the room.
♪ ♪
Storm: And keep your hands away from your wiener.
-Yes, sir. -(laughter)
You're an adult, Howard. You can say "penis."
Robin: I'd go from doing the show
and then coming to The Comedy Store
and then go to The Improv.
He would do five, six sets a night,
and just keep going.
Robin: And now a native New York impression,
a New York echo.
(shouts) "Hello!"
-"Shut the fuck up!" -(laughter)
Velardi: We were just playing, you know?
We were out and about.
♪ You can climb a mountain... ♪
Velardi: It was wonderful being in Hollywood.
You know he's the star of the very successful Mork & Mindy show,
would you welcome, Robin Williams.
(cheers, applause)
Momma, I'm on TV!
For my friends in San Francisco,
(slowly) how are you?
Storm: He started hanging out with a lot of major stars.
He was hanging out with De Niro,
he was hanging out with Belushi,
and they were impressed
that they were hanging out with him.
Robin: There was one crazy night where he took me
to a series of clubs to see different bands.
He'd just put you in a headlock and say,
"Come on, we're going to this place."
(snorts)
Storm: In the second year of the show,
Robin was doing drugs.
Robin: It was part of the whole scene at that time.
There was just so much of it.
There were even some clubs that used to pay in white or green.
You'd go hang out at clubs, and then, um, end up
in the hills, in some coke dealer's house.
Everyone used to just give it to you, because if you're famous,
you know, it was just a-- like a thing. "Hey, come here. Take this."
You know, you'd get phone calls that say, "Yeah, Robin left his car."
It's found some place on Sunset.
Dawber: I climbed out of a bathroom window
at Imperial Gardens,
because Robin was there with people
that he didn't want anybody to know he was there with.
No! Everyone I've ever known!
There are people here I've slept with twice.
Boosler: He would just sometimes at the end of an hour
just pick a gorgeous woman out of the audience
and walk out, and never saw her again,
and her boyfriend would go, "I guess she's gone."
Velardi: He loved women. Loved women.
And I got it. And I understood it.
And I wanted him to have that,
but I also wanted him to come home.
♪ ♪
You know, after a night of partying,
we'd couldn't find him many times.
Dawber: He'd come in looking pretty burned out,
because, you know, he was out till 3:00, 4:00 in the morning.
You've had all week to do this.
(laughs) Look at him. He's so pitiful.
'Cause I feel like shit, that's why.
I'm looking at you.
I'm not really looking at you.
I'm looking at the back of my mind going,
"There's gotta be another line.
Someone back there, send another line forward!"
Storm: He was drinking and coke.
It was like him jumping into a giant cake.
You know, your most delicious cake ever, and he could eat all--
anything he wanted, 'cause that was what he was doing.
♪ ♪
I believe that cocaine is God's way of saying, "You're making too much money."
(laughter)
Idle: He got really into it, a lot.
And I would follow him around to these various places,
and he'd be funny and then we'd move on
and then he'd be funny and move on.
It's not a funny drug.
It just makes you want more and more and more of it,
and it doesn't make you funny.
It would just be interesting to me
that he would cease to be funny
the later the evening went with that drug.
Do you have any fears, anxieties,
or questions about going into a film... now?
Some of them, yeah, it's scary,
because you realize one wrong--
you can be doing great, everyone would go,
"Hey, fantastic! Brilliant.
We'll have breakfast, lunch, dinner."
Then all of a sudden, one bad film,
"Oh, excuse me will you hold?"
Okay. Stand by.
Action!
What am I?
I ain't no "physi-kist,"
but I knows what matters.
What am I?
I'm Popeye the Sailor.
♪ And I am, what I am, what I am ♪
♪ And I am, what I am, and that's all that I am ♪
♪ 'Cause I am what I am... ♪
Robin: We had the dailies, they showed them to my manager.
He called back and said, "Robin, I saw the dailies.
Could you open your other eye?"
"Charlie, he doesn't have another eye. He's Popeye."
♪ To me bottom, from the bottom to me top... ♪
Robin: As I'm walking outside after the movie,
the paparazzis saw that everyone
was kind of walking out a little nonplussed,
and I think one guy turned to me and went, "Welcome to show business."
(laughs) And the illusion that I was gonna be
a movie star really quickly diminished.
Dawber: It was really near the end of Mork & Mindy.
And he came to work he said, "Wow.
"I went over to the Chateau last night.
I was supposed to meet with De Niro."
He said, "De Niro had a couple of girls in his room.
He wouldn't let me in." (laughs)
And so-- "I'm there,"♪ There is a season, turn... ♪ and he says,
"So I decided to go to Belushi's bungalow."
And he said, "He was so stoned,
he could hardly stand up."
And then just before our dinner break,
the producers came to me and they said, "Pam...
"John Belushi-- they-- he-- he OD'ed last night."
And I went, "What?"
John Belushi died today at 33 years old.
He was a comic actor best known
for Animal House, the film,
and his years on the television program Saturday Night Live.
Belushi died in a bungalow
at the Chateau Marmont Hotel in Hollywood.
Later, Los Angeles police--
Dawber: I said, "I have something really terrible to tell you."
He said, "What?" And I said...
"John Belushi's dead. He died. He OD'ed."
He said, "I was with him last night!"
And I said, "I-- I know."
He goes, "I was with him last night!"
And I said, "I know, Robin.
I know you were."
And so, we just walked together towards our trailers
and...
just before he went into his trailer
and I said-- this is gonna make me cry.
I said, "If that ever happens to you,
I will find you and kill you first."
♪ ♪
He said, "Dawbs, that's never gonna happen to me."
Newswoman: A Los Angeles County grand jury has begun
its investigation of the death of comedian John Belushi.
-(indistinct chatter) -(cameras clicking)
Newsman: Comedian Robin Williams was the grand jury's star witness.
Williams was one of three people with Belushi
the night before he died of an overdose of cocaine and heroin.
His attorneys said Williams was cooperating in the investigation
and did not have to be subpoenaed in order to testify.
Robin: Here's this guy who was a beast, who could do anything...
and he's gone, and that sobered the shit out of me.
♪ ♪
Dawber: And that's when Robin stopped.
Storm: He backed off for a while and cleaned up.
♪ La, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la ♪
-Pardon me. -(gasps)
Could you not make so much noise?
You're scaring away all the flies.
I directed him once, in The Frog Prince.
He's dressed as a frog.
He just learned in the papers
that they'd canceled Mork & Mindy.
He gathered a crowd around him.
He just went into a rant about ABC
and all of the people who ran it
and all of the people who had the shows
and how awful they were.
Robin: Just going, "Fuck these people."
Oh you mean from inside the Frog-- "Fuck these people,"
inside this giant frog head.
-It was crazy shit. Painful. -Man: Oh yeah.
At that point, everything is like, "Fuck, it's over."
♪ ♪
Robin: "What's gonna happen next? What are you gonna do?"
There was fear.
Velardi: Hollywood was eating us up.
Robin and I decided to leave
and come back to Northern California.
♪ ♪
Velardi: We just wanted to be together
where we didn't have all that noise coming in.
Robin: It's the idea of "This is it.
I don't need to live--
I can't-- I mean, I don't do well in LA.
Velardi: And we wanted to have children
and have a life together.
You go-- you're a good boy. Hey, Zachary.
Today, we're going to have the baptism.
Christopher Reeve as the godfather,
and Valerie and Robin Williams
as the proud parents.
Should we button that top button?
-You want this on too? -Yeah.
Now we can do Superbaby.
Velardi: No. Oh yeah, he can fly into his baptism.
(laughing) No, I don't want to fly him any place.
We gather to say thank you to God for the gift of you.
With your wishes come on from your heart.
What would you share?
(indistinct chatter)
That-- that comes with the package.
Pastor: To follow his inner self. Beautiful.
(indistinct chatter)
Robin: You just have to be prepared when you have a child.
Must prepare yourself. Get ready.
You get this feeling of like, "Okay.
(laughs nervously) "Okay.
Series has been over for a while, okay."
That's so hard. I gave up the series.
I didn't want to make that much money for no reason anymore.
(laughter, applause)
Really does sober your ass up when you realize
you'll have to, six years from now, be going,
"Daddy doesn't really knows what he does for a living.
What do you want for your birthday?"
(child voice) "Power of attorney." (normal voice) "Okay!"
Stand up is a great survival mechanism.
For me that's a joy, that's jazz.
That's what I have to do.
That one-on-one thing.
Maybe-- maybe millions of years ago, there were people--
instead of clubs, there was somebody at a cave door,
going, "Two rock minimum."
(laughter)
(grunts)
Some guy stood up in front of the fire going... (grunts)
"How many Neanderthals does it take to light a fire?
Come on. None! They don't know!"
(grunts)
Two guys in the back with a big rock going...
"I'm really fucked-up. Here."
Talk about your life, talk about drugs,
talk about the things in the country, talk about anything
and not have some network executive going,
"God, we're excited about some of the things,
but can you just tone it back?"
You ever think that God might get stoned?
Look-- look at it-- oh, a strange thing.
If you look at a platypus, I think that you think God might be stoned.
Think that God's up there in heaven going...
(inhales) "Okay.
"Let's take a beaver...
"let's put on a duck's bill, okay?
(maniacal laugh)
"Hey, what are you gonna do? I'm God!
"Okay. Uh... it's a mammal,
"but it lays eggs. What the hell!
"Hey, Darwin! (kisses) Okay.
I don't know."
Velardi: Robin loved working.
He was working on a national tour,
and he made films.
and we oftentimes would come
on movie sets with Robin.
But for the most part, he would come back
to the ranch and be with us.
♪ ♪
He was quiet. He was very quiet.
When he was home, he would shut off and recharge.
♪ ♪
I was supposed to be making a home
and taking care of my son,
but I had no sense of order.
I didn't know how to manage a household.
So, I interviewed Marsha as a nanny.
She was very organized,
and she took very good care of Zachary.
She was organized the way we weren't.
And so it was good to have that kind of "tuck-tuck."
It worked.
♪ ♪
Robin's managers were now taking care of him.
I was no longer involved with his day-to-day material making.
He would spend more and more time away, working.
(cheers, applause)
Arthur Grace: I got a call from the director of photography at Newsweek
to do a cover story on Robin.
They just sent me out on the road
to be with Robin Williams for a month.
♪ ♪
He was on the road working on his material.
We traveled together in lousy little cigar-tube planes.
He was not getting quote "first-class treatment"
in travel or anything else.
He was in the airport terminal like everybody else,
and he was always polite
and always talked to the people.
I couldn't believe they were paying me to hang out with him.
♪ I'm a fool to do your dirty work ♪
♪ Oh yeah... ♪
Grace: Before the show, he would go
into his private room and get ready.
♪ I'm a fool to do your dirty work ♪
Robin would stand there,
looking down, his arms hanging loose,
completely quiet, completely silent.
The first time I saw it, I thought he fell asleep,
and I almost went over and said, you know, "Robin."
He was just quiet and still, Zen-like.
(heart beating)
(breathing slowly)
(muffled cheers, applause)
Announcer (on P.A.): Ladies and gentlemen,
-Robin Williams! -(cheering continues)
Let's go! Let's move it! Let's move it!
And then, like he was--
(snaps fingers) ...somebody launched him out of a rocket.
♪ Dirty work no more ♪
♪ I'm a fool to do your dirty work, oh yeah ♪
He put so much energy into the show,
so much of himself into the show.
When he came off stage, he was just dripping...
exhausted, mentally and physically, emotionally exhausted.
♪ ♪
He left it all on the stage.
After we'd check into a hotel,
he was full of energy again.
He didn't wanna go to sleep, so, okay, so it's midnight,
and there's this after-hours place,
and out into the night we'd go.
And then the next day, get up, go again.
♪ I'm a fool to do your dirty work, oh yeah... ♪
Robin: There's a real incredible rush, I think,
when you find something new and spontaneous.
I think your brain rewards that with a little bit of endorphins going,
"If you think again, I'll get you high one more time."
♪ Dirty work, oh yeah ♪
Grace: The cover came out, did well.
And then I got a call from him saying,
now he was at the Metropolitan Opera House.
He's actually gonna step out on that stage,
in this environment,
in front of 3,800 people,
and make them laugh for 90 minutes?
This is like being a gladiator.
♪ I don't wanna do your dirty work no more ♪
♪ I'm a fool to do your dirty work, oh yeah ♪
Whoa-ho-ho!
What the fuck am I doing here?
This is incredible. I'm scared shitless.
I can't lie.
How do you get to the Met? Money. Lots and lots of money.
God damn. I wonder if Pavarotti's
at The Improv going, "Two Jews walk into a bar.
(laughter) Yes."
We'd done-- I don't know-- 20 or 30 shows on the road
for six months, maybe eight months.
We had really worked on this.
The show that we taped at the Night at the Met...
there was 25% that I'd never heard before.
-(applause) -The whole country's intense.
You wanna know why the police are intense?
Because we're intense.
We're armed and they're armed. Yay!
God, in California, everybody's got handguns,
even ladies who are just carrying .22's,
just makes a small hole.
(mimics gunfire, splatter) Ah!
I got tired of carrying my mace 'cause I used to mix it up
with my breath freshener and go, pssh,
-"Oh, there goes the day." -(laughter)
It's to the point in California where we're gonna come home and go,
"Honey, I'm home!" "Easy, dear."
"Hold it, honey." "Dad, I gotcha."
"Hold it, boy." "Watch out, dear."
It's Family Feud: The Home Game.
There are guys who won't go on the stage at The Comedy Store...
unless they have their eight minutes written out.
Robin did a two-hour show.
A nuclear bomb--
it's basically a man's way of saying,
"I'm gonna fuck up the Earth, yeah."
A woman would never make a nuclear weapon.
They would never make a bomb that kills you.
They'd make a bomb that makes you feel bad for a while.
See? It'd be a whole other thing.
That's why there should be a woman president.
Don't you see? That'd be a wonderful thing.
(cheers, applause)
Be an incredible time for that.
There would never be any wars,
just, every 28 days, some intense negotiations.
(laughter)
That'd be a good thing, yeah.
(Spanish accent) This is Carlos,
who for years was my stand-in when we made--
(Spanish accent) We-- he and I are like this.
We are. Which one is me?
(both chatter)
I love you so much. I love what you stand for,
-even when you're sitting. -Thank you very much.
Robin and I both did sets at Catch.
He had rented a townhouse.
and I didn't know him very well,
but I wanted to.
And he said, "I'm gonna go home. Do you wanna come by?"
I say, "Sure."
So I walk him back to his townhouse,
and Zak, he's crying like crazy.
Robin's-- you know, he's trying--
so I was like, "May I? Can I?"
Simple little effleurage
with the index finger
on the base of the skull of the baby,
and Zak starts to quiet down,
and he quiets down and he falls asleep in my arms.
And then I handed him back to Robin
and he just looked at me like I was--
you know, like this genius.
And that was the first time we connected
in a different way that wasn't about comedy.
It was about... being a father and being a friend.
It was really-- yeah, I remember that so well.
♪ ♪
Everybody wanted something from him.
I had no agenda. I just liked him.
Velardi: Oh, here's Robin! He's used to this.
(laughs)
-A piece of cake. -You know...
You know...
It's a strange sorta thing. Won't you follow me?
Grobel: The end of your first Playboy interview
you spoke of your future, and it said,
"I'll settle for Valerie and me living on our ranch in Napa."
And it's like-- so much for your seer-like qualities, you know?
Robin: Yeah. Yeah and that--
you know, obviously that fell apart, again,
'cause it wasn't strong enough to hold.
I had this wanderlust, you know, and so did she.
♪ ♪
Velardi: Robin and I had drifted apart.
I wanted out.
I no longer wanted this life.
It's not what I had signed up for.
I wanted Robin and the fun that we had,
and then it turned into an industry,
and I was less and less a part of it.
Robin wanted to further his career,
and I wanted that for him too.
I didn't want to hold him back.
So... we... gave each other up.
♪ ♪
The saddest thing in the world is life, man.
-You telling me? -Mm-hmm.
It gets so bad sometimes, I don't think I'll make it.
(laughs lightly)
I ever tell you I had a kid?
I got involved with this girl, man,
and she got pregnant, went on back home to Alabama.
Thomas Ava Witherspoon, five years old.
-I think of that kid, I want to cry. -Oh, that's wonderful.
Well, why don't you cry, man?
It's good for you.
Oh, I don't have to cry.
I don't need to cry.
Lionel. Lionel.
You know... I have whole family
I will never ever see again.
Velardi: Contrary to what national papers said,
Robin and I had ended our marriage...
and then Robin and Marsha started up a relationship.
That story of him running off with the nanny,
everybody got carried away with it,
and because I didn't counter that,
because I don't talk to the press...
they got skewered, and I was sorry for that.
And I'm sorry for Marsha,
that she had to start her adventure
with Robin in such an unpleasant way.
Robin: It was a year after I had been separated.
And she only took care of Zachary for a short time
and then became my assistant.
When I was on the road, she would help me write material.
♪ ♪
I started to get my life together,
I fell in love with Marsha.
I started to just go, "Wait,
I don't have to live this kind of madhouse existence."
And that's when my life was saved by her, not ruined by her.
♪ ♪
She's real honest about things, about everything...
in terms of work, in terms of life.
If I start to get a little kind of like this,
she'll say, "Wise up."
If I start to get too insecure,
she'll say, "Stop it. You're great."
She's really grounded in that sense.
Someone who was very childlike in a lot of ways
was awesome to have as a dad as a young kid.
He would set up a whole yard
filled with, you know, toys.
My dad wasn't afraid to get his hands dirty,
and jump in and play with kids but on their terms.
Man: B28 take 2, "A" and "B" cameras.
Barry Levinson: Action!
(flute plays tune)
Good morning, Vietnam!
Hey, this is not a test. This is rock 'n' roll!
Time to rock it from the Delta to the DMZ!
Is that me, or does that sound like an Elvis Presley movie?
"Viva Da Nang."
♪ Ohhhh, viva Da Nang ♪
♪ Da Nang me, Da Nang me ♪
♪ Why don't they get a rope and hang me? ♪
Hey, is it a little too early for being that loud?
Hey, too late.
In those days, television and film were two different worlds.
It was rare that you had crossover TV people
doing film and film people doing TV.
Good Morning, Vietnam! was the first real commercial hit,
and it established Robin as a real actor.
And he suddenly was becoming a movie star.
♪ ♪
Steve Martin: I don't remember when I met him.
You know, we would brush up against each other,
but we got to know each other a little bit better
when we did Waiting for Godot.
He was debating whether to do it,
and I said, "We do Waiting for Godot,
I mean, who-- who could touch us?"
(laughs) You know, who's-- who's--
What comedians are doing Waiting for Godot?
-Moron! -Vermin!
-Abortion! -Morpion!
-Sewer rat! -Curate!
-Cretin! -Critic!
(audience laughs)
Robin: I was learning from him physical comedy
and just the nuts and bolts of timing.
Because obviously when I do my act, I don't have timing.
Oh!
(audience laughs)
Robin: And he is just literally about the comedy of pause,
you know, holding back.
-Ack! -Didi! Didi!
(vocalizes The Twilight Zone theme music)
(audience laughs)
Didi! Didi.
(reporter speaks)
No, it's-- it's-- it's definitely theater.
(reporter 2 speaks)
Martin: I-I-- I don't know how to answer that.
The differences are obvious to me.
And to do this play, it's one of the most powerful pieces
of literature in the 20th century.
I think it kind of helps.
Martin: Except for Cruel Shoes.
Cruel Shoes I think was
one of the second most powerful pieces of literature.
You know, it really helps to do something
that's so amazing, that every night
you can do it differently, but yet it's the same.
You can get deeper and deeper within this play
and find things, every night you can change
because it's so amazing.
Funny. For me, I figured it out
on day one, and it never changed.
(laughter)
Your turn.
You think God sees me?
You must close your eyes.
God, have pity on me.
And me.
On me. On me.
Pity on me!
His character was interestingly...
hurt, and he played it very vulnerable,
as I think he was in life too.
Onstage he was the master and in charge
and funny and quick.
And in life, you know, he wasn't onstage anymore.
I just felt a little bit of...
I think he was really comfortable onstage
and less comfortable offstage.
Always felt him holding-- holding himself together.
It was at a time I think he was...
clean... and--
and it was a very difficult... clean.
You know, it's hard, it was hard.
I don't mean that he slipped or anything like that.
He didn't. I just think he really had to concentrate... on that.
There you are. You've become a reformed alcoholic.
You've got a steaming glass of Perrier, going,
"I feel so much better about myself! God damn it."
"I feel really healthy now! (laughs)
"No, go ahead, have your cocktail.
"I'll be over in the corner hurting the cat.
(maniacal laugh) Oh God damn!"
(cheers, applause)
Man: Do you know of any other people whose minds work faster than yours?
Robin: Mm-hmm. Yeah, I'm starting to meet them.
Oliver Sacks, playing him in Awakenings.
Man: Right.
Robin: He's such a compassionate man,
and the idea of treating the brain
as a subjective subject.
This is the idea of the brain
can be one thing and then the other simultaneously.
What about this?
(laughs) What do you mean, this?
It's a strobe.
You're wrong.
All of this before is the strobe.
This is me saying his name to him.
Excuse me.
Robin: Oliver is someone who thinks
on-- on levels that I've never dreamed of.
Man: He introduced you to a guy with Tourette's syndrome named Shane.
It had a profound influence on you.
Robin: Definitely.
I-I began-began touching-touching,
you know, touching-touching things.
You know, touching, you know. (shouts)
Robin: Here's a disease that basically makes you
do, physically, things you have no control over.
Along with it comes this incredible mental acceleration,
lets you think faster than most people.
Pardon me?
Oh yeah, sure.
Robin: And the price you pay is
that you can't control a lot of those movements.
The complexity and the total unpredictability
of the human brain, that's what I learned from meeting Shane.
The brain is one thing that controls bodily functions,
and then there's this other thing which is divine, called the mind.
There is deity within you, there is that-- that spark,
that divine thing, that thing that is soul.
And that's what's exciting,
the idea you could explore creativity at any price
is like-- this is what we're kind of dealing with
as artists, comedians, writers, actors.
You're going to come to the edge,
you're going to look over, and sometimes
you're going to step over the edge,
and then you're going to come back, hopefully.
(shouting)
Parry!
What are you looking at?
(Parry whimpers)
Parry.
Help! (shouts)
McLaurin: Robin could never let go of a role.
He would become the role he was playing,
and then it'd become
another part of his-- his personality.
Come along!
-(car honks) -(tires screech)
Driver: Holy shit!
Jack: Parry!
Robin: Now when I see someone on the street
ranting at the world, it isn't just lumped
into "There's a generalized crazy person."
You know that they're suffering from something specific...
and that they have a life, a past...
and-- you know, and a present,
and it gives you a different point of view.
♪ ♪
Won't you join us for a once-in-a-lifetime comedy event?
-As some of today's... -And yesterday's...
-And tomorrow's... -Funniest stars come together
for an unforgettable night of laughter.
-Comic Relief. -Live!
Crystal: It was our Farm Aid.
The three of us hosted these comedy telethons
to raise money for medical aid
for the homeless on the streets of America.
-(applause) -I'll take these. You take those.
-(speaks gibberish) -(laughter)
We would like to say how happy we are to be here.
-(man shouts) -Oh, sorry.
-All right. -(laughter)
It was a great way for all the funny people
to join in to... not only be funny but be compassionate.
♪ ♪
The only reason that I am not running for president
is-- I swear to God-- I have this fear
no woman would come forward
-to say she had sex with me. -(laughter)
I would be doing one of those interviews on CNN,
looking into a camera, going,
"Come on, Susan! You know you fucked me."
(laughter)
Robin: We had just amazing people come on
and raised that much money and used comedy
as this vehicle to change a world.
Yes, God made babies cute, so you don't eat them.
(laughter)
How many people do you know that you would let shit on you,
piss on you, keep you up all fucking night?
-(laughter) -Woman: Whoo!
They wake up at five o'clock the morning,
and I don't know what drug they are--
is there some sort of Fisher Price cocaine
that they're in there going... (snorts) "Ah!"
Goldberg: Great people make you better.
You got over the fact that it was Robin, and then
you went to work, you did what you needed to do,
because you wanted to be up to speed.
It's just like, "Oh no, you're not leaving me in the dust.
I'm going to be right here, right next to you, running."
You wanted to be able to play and keep up.
-But seriously, there'll be more. -Okay, so taking care
of Bill and the big chubby jokes have begun.
This is a penis thing.
-I didn't-- -It's all a-- Did you never notice that?
Wait a minute! Let him talk for a moment!
-Oh! -(laughter)
-Put that thing away! -Ow! Ow!
-Put it away! -No, no, no.
-You know, Whoopi. -Yes?
-I... -Robin: Nice to see you, Whoopi.
You didn't see my lips move once, did you?
-No, but I never do. -Whoopi, I have a confession to make.
-Yes? -Robin: Me too.
(chuckles)
I am not what I appear to be.
I am a Jew.
And I'll tell you something else.
Is it me or is it cold in here?
Yeah, it's-- it's very convenient, you know?
This is--
It's already-- you know, it's not like
I could come out and I do, "So, guys, what's up?"
-It doesn't-- -Hey. What the hell?
(laughter)
-Robin: So, guys, what's up? -Are you kidding me?
What's happening?
Priest: We commend into your hands
the spirit of your servant,
Ronald Wilson Reagan.
Crystal: I'm watching Ronald Reagan's funeral
and the phone rings. And I go, "Hello?"
(mimics Reagan) "Bill? Hi, its Ron Reagan."
(normal voice) "So... what a coincidence.
I'm watching your funeral."
(mimics Reagan) "Well, I just want to tell you that I'm in heaven now
and I'm at a party. I'm having a wonderful time."
(normal voice) I said "Oh Really? What's heaven like?"
(mimics Reagan) "Well, it's a lot hotter than I thought it was gonna be."
(normal voice) "Oh, really? You know,
"you may not be in heaven, sir.
You may be in the other place."
(mimics Reagan) "Oh! That would explain why I'm in a hot tub with Nixon
and his balls are resting on the bridge of my nose."
Wherever I was, when the phone would ring,
I'd look at it, and I'd see the 415 area code,
I knew it was him.
I knew it was gonna be something really good.
(answering machine beeps)
Answering machine: Sunday, 1:21 p.m.
(beeps)
(Robin speaks in British accent)
♪ ♪
(answering machine beeps)
(Robin speaking with lisp)
Crystal: As the friendship really grew and grew,
we kind of needed each other more.
(answering machine beeps)
(Robin mimics computer)
Should be very simple. I think I shouldn't expand too much
with that one, should just, "Hell!"
Do you want to talk about when she goes off, and she's--
We did that one where we thought, "Oh, I'm not doing this.
"I can't do this. How can you do this?
You fickle creature."
Man: And then you catch onto the fact that she's performing.
"She's acting!"
I have decided to make my final wish.
I wish for Princess Jasmine
to fall desperately in love with me.
(mimics buzzer, chuckles) Uh, Master,
uh, there are a few addendas, some quid pro quos.
Don't talk back to me, you big blue lout!
You will do what I order you to do!
(choking) I am unable to do what you ordered me to do
at this present point, because that is not part
of my programming. Warning, warning!
-♪ ♪ -(hissing)
(mimics Robinson) Come on kid, see? Gotta get the snake, see?
(mimics King) I promoted the fight. I'm hoping it's gonna be as best it can.
(mimics Brando) The horror.
The young boy up against a giant snake.
Idle: He would just take a thought and improvise on it.
It might just dinner or it might be 2,000 people,
it's the same improvisational thing that goes on.
(clacks)
-Man: Set. -Man 2: Action.
Miranda: When did he pass on?
Eight years ago, dear...
this November.
Miranda: What happened?
Oh, he was quite fond of the drink really.
'Twas the drink that killed him.
Miranda: How awful. He was an alcoholic.
Oh no, dear. He was on his way to the pub
to have a drink, walked in the door,
and someone had spilled a beer
and he slipped and broke his neck.
He was on his way to the pub,
and a Guinness truck was passing by
hit a bump, and six kegs fell off.
He finished the first three,
but the last three got him.
He was hit by a Budweiser truck.
First time in America too.
(crying) "This Bud's for you."
Oh God, so it was quite literally
the drink that killed him.
(crew laughing)
(gruffly) Get it together, asshole!
(normal voice) Sorry, man.
-Man: And... -(laughter)
Even Sammy's behind us going,
(mimics Sammy Davis Jr.) "Come on! I'm here,
waiting, decomposing man."
Clear!
What happened?
(laughter)
I'm waiting!
Idle: It was vital for him to have an audience.
And he was hilarious, but it was a need,
very needy for him to-- to communicate and be funny.
Yoshi: Hey, Mrs. Yorkin.
Nina: Hey, Yoshi. How are you?
Yoshi: How have you been? Long time, no see.
Mark Romanek: He gave such a detailed,
focused performance,
but the second you said, "Cut,"
he would be back to the crazy,
insane, psycho Robin Williams.
(gruff voice) Hi, I'm Sy Parrish, the photo guy.
-(laughing) -It plays with the hard drive.
(normal voice) I can't help you, it's not really my section, but--
-You're Will Yorkin! -Oh Jesus.
Oh, ho ho!
Romanek: The urge to be funny
and to make people laugh was so innate in him
and so, like-- almost like breathing for him
that if he didn't get that out of his system...
it would've infected his performance in a bad way.
Fu! Boy.
You're here in the flesh. Woo hoo!
Not often I see you in here.
Yeah, you--
-(man chuckles) -Hi.
Romanek: So I would just let him go, as long as it was reasonable
for time in the day
to just get it out of his system.
And then, actually, I realized
that when he makes people laugh that hard,
he used to kind of get high from it--
you know, like an endorphin rush or something.
And so if he was being really funny one second before the take,
I would-- he would, you know, quiet down,
and I'd say, "Action,"
he almost had this like glow of joy.
Even though he was playing this very serious scene,
that also kind of gave this patina of weirdness
to the performance.
Will: Oh excuse me, I need some help here.
I'm trying to figure out if this will work with my Mac.
I'm sorry, this isn't my section.
You're Will Yorkin.
Cheri Minns: Robin would just be--
whatever the person he was with,
he'd be what they wanted him to be.
♪ ♪
He just didn't operate like normal people.
He was very vulnerable that's for sure,
He held onto a lot of things
and internalized a lot of things.
He felt everything.
♪ ♪
Crystal: He needed that little extra hug that you can only get from strangers.
It's a very powerful thing for a lot of comedians.
That laugh is a-- is a drug.
That... acceptance...
that thrill is really hard to replace...
with anything else.
Miranda: Why do you always make me out to be the heavy?
Oh, lighten up, will ya?
Just realize you're spending too much time
with those corporate clones you used to despise!
I spend too much time with you, Daniel!
It's over! It's over!
(sighs)
Come on, Miranda.
Listen, we've got problems, but who doesn't?
We could work 'em out. What are you talking about, "It's over"?
We've been trying to work them out for 14 years.
Come on, please. Listen.
Maybe we need some help, okay?
Maybe we can go to a family therapist.
They'll help us through this together.
We have nothing in common.
Oh, sure we do. We love each other.
Come on, Miranda. We love each other.
♪ ♪
Robin: I don't know the great secrets of acting.
It's like some sort of Zen concept where you finally say,
"Okay, what you think is acting,
don't do that anymore and-- and stop."
If you just relax, listen, be in the scene,
you won't have to worry about finding
that one funny line or... acting.
If you just don't interfere with yourself,
you're quite interesting.
♪ ♪
People will register your thoughts
and they will pick up on what you're going through
because your face is accessible.
And you'll be in character,
the audience will be following along,
And the most important thing is for an audience
to follow the character through.
♪ ♪
Don't do anything and you'll be amazed how much you're doing.
Don't do anything. Just talk.
My wife used to fart when she was nervous.
She had all sorts of wonderful
-little idiosyncrasies. -(both laugh)
You know what? She used to fart in her sleep.
Sorry I shared that with you.
Ah, but, Will, she's been dead two years,
and that's the shit I remember.
Wonderful stuff, you know,
little things like that.
Ah, but, those are the things I miss the most,
those little idiosyncrasies that only I knew about.
That's what made her my wife.
Oh, and she had the goods on me, too.
She knew all my little peccadillos.
People call these things "imperfections,"
but they're not. Oh, that's the good stuff.
And then we get to choose who we let into our weird little worlds.
You're not perfect, sport.
And let me save you the suspense:
This girl you met? She isn't perfect either.
But the question is whether or not you're perfect for each other.
That's the whole deal. That's what intimacy is all about.
♪ ♪
Robin: Every person is driven by some deep, deep, deep, deep,
deep secret,
and finding that for a character
gives you that which drives it through.
You look for it and then you try and find that essence,
what drives them.
If you can find it, if you find the right one,
you'll know it.
(panting)
Idle: He had a restless mind.
His thing was physical exertion.
He'd go for 60 miles, 70 miles on his bike.
I think that stopped the thoughts...
'cause the thoughts can be... disturbing.
I think he didn't feel worthy.
There's no "I'm wonderful." No. It was--
it's lack of self-worth somewhere in there, too.
Announcer: Welcome to the 2003 Critics' Choice Awards.
The nominees are...
Daniel Day-Lewis for Gangs of New York...
(applause)
Jack Nicholson for About Schmidt...
(applause, cheers)
Edward Norton for-- no, I'm just kidding.
-(laughter) -Um, Robin Williams...
for One Hour Photo.
(cheers, applause)
(gasps) Drama.
There's been a tie. I swear to God.
Daniel Day-Lewis for Gangs of New York...
(cheers, applause)
and Jack Nicholson for About Schmidt.
Nicholson: Well, I don't usually get this baked
-when it's on television. -(laughter)
Robin, would you come up and give...
(cheers, applause)
Would you-- would you give the funniest acceptance speech ever?
What Jack is trying to say here...
(laughter)
is he's so happy to be here,
he could drop a log, really.
Nicholson: Until he got here, I couldn't think about anything
but spanking Jillian Hall. I don't what happened to me.
-I could do that all night. -Robin: Ho, ho, ho, ho!
-Let's do that for the deaf now. -Yeah, yeah.
Whoo! Whoo. Whoo.
I really wanted to say how grateful I am
to the film critics for honoring Robin, and...
-(laughter) -(sighs)
Yeah, thanks for nothing!
(laughter, applause)
-It's a tie with three people! -Yeah.
You pretty much said, "(bleeps) you, Robin."
Thank you, I hope that's televised!
(Nicholson clears throat)
(laughter)
For those of you at home...
Jack is getting ready to bring out a five iron.
Robin, since they didn't give you an award,
-you can have... -Oh, thank you.
...both of their names in the tie.
Thank you. I want to thank Jack Nicholson
and Daniel Day-Lewis for giving me this piece of paper.
Has their names on it, not mine.
And I'm glad to be left out of this incredible group.
I want to thank Jack for-- he is, to me, the greatest actor,
and Daniel Day-Lewis, the greatest actor.
And... I'm just a hairy actor.
And it's been a wonderful evening
for me to-- to walk away with nothing.
Coming here with no expectations,
leaving here with no expectations...
it's pretty much been a Buddhist evening for me.
-Thank you. -(applause)
Zak: His pathos was seeking to entertain and please.
And... he felt...
when he wasn't doing that,
he was not succeeding...
as a person.
And that was always hard to see...
because in so many senses, he is the most successful person I know...
and yet he didn't always feel that.
-Good morning in Kandahar! -(cheering)
-("Retreat" plays) -Uh-oh!
-(man shouts) -(crowd cheering)
-I'm not gonna forget that. -(laughter)
I've never had an entire audience just go,
"Forget you!"
(laughter, cheering)
"You have no idea!"
I was also wondering, "What's coming from that way?"
-(laughter) -When an entire--
Lewis Black: He actually called me and said,
"Do you wanna go on a USO tour?
"A Christmas tour, just like--
just like Bob Hope?" (laughs)
Robin's energy was like nothing I'd ever seen.
You'd touch down in the Middle East,
then you're going bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam.
It becomes a complete blur.
-Get in over here. -Woman: All right.
Black: He hits the ground running and whosever's there,
getting ready to greet us, he's already doing a show
and giving them a sense of how important they are to him.
Announcer: Give it up for Robin Williams!
(cheering)
I hope this shirt says "I love New York"
and not "I Lick Camel Balls."
(laughter)
I'm really hoping so.
Black: And it's every day.
Wherever we are, doesn't seem to be any down time for him.
I wish you from my heart
a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah,
Happy Kwanzaa for my brothers.
You know who you are.
Black: He finishes this, and he flies immediately
to Vancouver to start a movie.
And I thought, "Wow.
"Wow. That--
that's-- that's hard-core."
He gave you a photo? Good.
Merry Christmas, fellas. Thank you.
♪ ♪
Black: I mean, he was like the light
that never knew how to turn itself off.
♪ ♪
Zak: When you have a parent
who's so giving, so generous,
and wanting to give his time
and effort in terms of entertaining,
but also to causes and to people...
that was challenging.
That was really challenging...
sharing and watching
my father give his time to others.
♪ ♪
The selfish part of me
wanted me to keep our relationship to myself
and, you know, have us just spend time together.
♪ ♪
Half of the year we'd see him.
Some years might not be half.
Some years we'd see him more.
It-it-- it's just the nature
of the business he was in.
So... yeah.
That's something that we got used to over time.
Robin: Sometimes, indirectly, you're talking to people,
you'll just talk about shit that--
you would be amazed. But when in therapy,
when you're talking to a shrink,
he said, "Sometimes be careful
"about what you talk about...
"because you may be in front of a stage,
"in front of so many people
"and start talking about something
you're not ready to deal with."
There's all these drugs-- Zoloft, Prozac.
I want to have one drug encompassing it all.
Call it "Fukitol."
(laughter)
I don't feel anything.
I don't want to do anything.
-Fukitol. -(laughter)
The closest thing to a coma you'll ever be.
Fukitol.
I'm sitting here in my own dung.
Fukitol.
(wind blowing)
♪ ♪
Man: What were you doing up there?
Robin: This movie called The Big White.
Just thinking, "What am I doing here?"
This is crazy and feeling kind of isolated.
And all of a sudden went, "Well, there's one cure.
I could drink!"
Ready for a refill?
Does Mrs. Kennedy have a black dress?
(laughs)
All righty. Coming up.
Robin: It went quick.
♪ ♪
I started drinking the tiny little bottles of Jack Daniels
-the little ones you get from the-- -Interviewer: Oh, yeah, yeah.
-And I thought, "This is fine." -Yeah, it's a small bottle.
And a week later I was hiding them,
a big bottle of Jack Daniels, and just, "Fuck."
It was, you know, either fear...
sometimes just the sheer wanting to run away from it all,
sometimes to run into it all, and just go, "Fuck it."
Hey, I just went through the cue cards,
and I'm telling you, you're gonna kill.
It's gonna work like a charm.
Don't worry about a thing.
Black: When we were doing Man of the Year,
he was drinking around me.
At the bar each night,
usually just before close,
I'd have a couple glasses of wine,
and then Robin would come down...
and have a tequila and-- and an espresso.
And he said to me, "I think I have a problem."
♪ ♪
Robin: I did three years of just insane shit...
just getting worse and worse and worse.
We have these things called "blackouts" as alcoholics. It's not really blackouts.
It's more like "sleepwalking with activities."
-Kind of strange. -(laughter)
I believe it's your conscience
going into a witness protection program.
It's your conscience going, "You're about to fuck a hobbit.
"I gotta go. Good luck.
"I'm gonna leave the dick on, then after an hour
"I'm opening up the asshole,
"but that didn't stop you Tuesday.
Good luck. Take care."
Zak: The struggles that my father dealt with
I think is really a symptom of...
just other things that underlie... the why.
But he would talk about his--
his addiction... issues.
He'd be pretty open about it.
Robin: As an alcoholic, you will violate your standards
quicker than you could lower them.
You will do shit that even the devil would go, "Dude."
(laughter)
And alcoholics, we're like assholes,
we can't wait to shit on everybody--
family, friends. We'll be like,
"Fuck you! Fuck you!
"Go fuck yourself! Fuck you!
"Fuck! F...
I'm fucked."
They tried to send my ass to rehab
and I went, "Yeah, yeah, yeah."
And I went to rehab in wine country,
just to keep my options open.
♪ ♪
Zak: Being sober and embracing his sobriety was great...
and he did lean on us when he needed...
to talk through stuff... but it was hard.
There's no crutch in his circumstance.
You can't rely upon, you know,
a bottle to comfort you.
♪ ♪
Interviewer: Divorce done?
Robin: Done and, you know, dealt with,
I mean, I think as much love
as we can do with that situation.
Being around my kids is really much more like,
"I love you guys. I live separately, but I'm okay."
It's difficult for them, but they're all like--
they've dealt with it.
♪ ♪
And I'm, you know, pretty much like,
"Okay, it's a different game."
Is there a deaf signer here?
Oh, how cool is that?
Blow me.
(laughter)
Thank you.
It takes--
It takes big balls to do that in my act.
Thank you.
What a great fucking night.
Wow.
This is gonna be like Deliverance
with Helen Keller, this is...
Thank you. What a wonderful idea.
I'll give you a break right now,
'cause there's more shit coming.
-Good luck. -(laughter)
Nice to be here in Washington--
I was on the road, I was performing,
and all of a sudden I noticed things--
I was just starting to run down.
I'd finished a show going, "Oh God."
♪ ♪
I was in Miami, I was about to do this show, and I said,
"Maybe we should have a doctor look at this."
I went to do a stress test,
and I was on the treadmill for one minute,
and the doctor went, "Okay, we got what we need."
My heart was beating like Tito Puente, like...
(vocalizes fast drumbeat)
Even the cardiologists said, "It's off the charts!
It's either an earthquake or he's fucking dying!"
When he was in the hospital
and they were shaving him and everything like that,
he was making jokes and everything,
but it was obvious that he was very, very frightened.
Crystal: It was more of a repair than they originally thought,
it was more complicated,
and it was really dangerous.
When the operation started,
I started leaving messages on his phone
as this guy, Vinnie the valve guy,
who was like a mechanic character,
who apparently supplied the valve
and the-- and the mechanics who were gonna do
the work on him, like he was an old car.
So when he woke up,
he'd have 15 messages to laugh to.
Day and half later, you know, he was in pain,
he'd just gone through this massive surgery.
He called me. "Oh God.
"Oh. Oh hilarious.
Can I talk to Vinnie?"
I want to thank everyone for all your kind letters,
prayers and thoughts. I just want to let you know
I'm doing better. See? (laughs)
Thank you.
How long ago was the surgery?
-Eight weeks ago. -Eight weeks!
Man, remarkable. Good for you.
(cheers, applause)
Yes, sir. You and I...
You and I are now Brotherhood of the Zipper Chest.
That's right. We got it. Now... there must--
My relationship with Robin only grew bigger
and stronger as we grew older.
We were no longer... kids hanging
around the back of The Comedy Store.
Did they give you that button
-where you can medicate yourself? -Yes.
Oh, that's a good one to have, isn't it?
Yes. I still have it.
(laughs) In the middle of the show--
Letterman: As you grow older, different things become more important
and the humanity of life...
is the great guiding light, and it was--
it was nice to be able to share that with Robin,
who was a different guy by then, you know.
(cheers, applause)
Robin: I ended up getting a bovine valve,
which is a cow valve, which is kind of cool,
'cause you can shit standing up. That's great.
(mimics thud) Great to be here. Nice to be here.
Crystal: Suddenly he was mortal.
Suddenly life was different.
Suddenly things got more precious.
Do you feel it affected you
in terms of your comedy any differently?
Robin: You know, I graze once a week.
I don't think it affected the comedy.
I think it-- a little bit of terms of--
slightly, I just enjoy life a little bit--
-you take things a little bit slower. -Right.
You don't rush-- stampede as it were.
After the surgery, you get very emotional.
It's like-- it's like weird. People go, "How are you?"
(crying) God! Thanks for asking.
And I got so emotional, I thought instead of a valve,
they gave me a tiny vagina, which is like, "What?"
-(laughter) -"How are you?"
"Much better now, thank you!
(moans)
"Oh God! Don't use the paddles.
Just rub me here. There we go."
♪ ♪
Hey, listen, I'm going on a date tonight,
and... if you're hungry,
I could fix you some food before I go.
You're going on a date? With who?
Ms. Reed. Hmm?
(chuckles) Really?
You're going out with the TILF?
-That's great! -The what?
TILF. "Teacher I'd Like to Fuck."
Nice mouth.
Robin read the screenplay...
As a favor, initially, 'cause I thought,
"Well, maybe I'll play a small part."
Yeah, I didn't know this, like he thought,
"Well, he wrote it, he's making another movie.
Maybe I'll-I'll-- I'll help him out."
And then he asked if he could be the guy,
which was really awesome.
♪ Okay ♪
♪ Chippin' around... ♪
Robin: I've been through it with-- over the years,
and you kinda come through it out the other side.
It was like, "Wow, you're alive."
(singer vocalizing)
Robin: "You're still here, homey. Let's see what happens."
♪ It's the terror of knowing ♪
♪ What this world is about, watching some good friends... ♪
Robin: Initially, it was just supposed to be
diving off the board fully clothed.
I went, "I'm shedding everything.
"It's all gone. This is--
I'm-- I'm freeing myself totally."
♪ People on streets ♪
♪ Turned away... ♪
And all day long, I was like,
"Hey, how you doing? Holy crap."
Hello, Mr. Diggler.
I do not understand why you could be...
-Insecure? -...insecure.
I don't even know how you--
I just thought you were bow-legged all these years.
♪ ♪
Interviewer: We're just waiting for Popeye 2, the nude version.
-That would be scary. -Interviewer: The Nude Naps.
"It eats the spinach. Oh.
Olive, you got no tits and a tight box."
Did you just say, "It eat-- it eats the spinach"?
Is that Popeye in Silence of the Lambs?
-Yeah. -"It eats the spinach."
You're throwing spinach down the hole.
"It eats the spinach."
(both laughing)
♪ ♪
Craig Ferguson: Congratulations on getting married. That's lovely.
-It's wonderful, isn't it? -Yeah, it's very nice.
Getting married for the third time,
my best man, Bobcat, said,
"It's like bringing a burn victim
-to a firework show." -(laughter)
Did he say that during his speech?
-Yes. -God Bless him. Isn't that lovely?
Three strikes, you're out. That's it.
Yeah. I wouldn't do that again.
No, if you do it again, that's--
you have to give up a body part. That's it.
"How many times you've been married, Bill?"
(mumbles) "Four times. Four times."
♪ ♪
Years went by, maybe 20 years...
and I just didn't see him.
So...
that's why I agreed to do his show.
I wanted to see him.
♪ ♪
(clears throat) Dad?
-Oh! -(gasps)
Hey, gang!
May I present Ms. Lily Schecter?
Dawber: I could just tell something was really just not right.
He wasn't that happy soul that he had been.
His body was stiff and he wasn't super sharp.
He looked like a wax figure.
-Simon? -Mmm?
Where are you?
You're really different tonight.
Is there something wrong?
Dawber: So I started questioning him.
No, everything seemed great.
"The new wife, she's wonderful.
I want you to meet her, and everything's great."
And he said, "But I'm really freaked out,
"because I'm-- I'm losing weight
and I don't know why, and I'm having tests run."
♪ ♪
Idle: He was here doing his sitcom,
I watched him once,
and I thought, "Oh, he's so uncomfortable."
And I invited him to dinner--
you see, I heard he was so down--
and then we just made him laugh and laugh and laugh,
and he just-- "Oh, thank you. I really needed a laugh."
Romanek: He came to visit us and just hung out
at the house all day. He was shooting
that sitcom he was doing.
Sort of a sparkle had gone out of his eye.
And I, you know, when I said goodbye,
he said, "Thanks, I had a really nice time,"
which I think he did, there was kids running around,
new people to meet, and he talked to everybody.
But I said, "Are you all right, Robin?"
And he said, "Yeah, I'm fine, boss."
And I-- I knew it wasn't true.
And I-- I don't think I even said, "Really?"
I just let-- you know, he didn't want to go there,
and so I gave him a hug.
He didn't really like to talk about his issues, you know.
Crystal: We met at a movie theater.
I was a little concerned
because I felt he was very quiet.
When we left each other,
he started to cry.
And I said, "What's the matter?"
And he said, "Oh, I'm just so happy seeing you."
And then he told me that he had been diagnosed with Parkinson's.
And when he told me, I never heard--
I never heard Robin be afraid...
except for that moment.
Couple of months later,
we were going on vacation,
Janice and I, to Europe.
And... I called him to say
I was gonna be away, and--
but I'm reachable on-- I said my phone,
I have my computer, so whatever.
And he says, "Okay. And...
you know I love you." And I said, "I love you too, pal."
And... that was the last time I spoke to him.
(waves crashing)
♪ ♪
Newsman: We have just received word
that the Academy Award-winning actor
and comedian Robin Williams has died.
The sheriff's office says that suicide is suspected.
"God, no. No, no, no, no.
Can't be. Can't possibly be."
And so, I just, like-- I lost it at that point.
I really did, so.
Oh.
Can't talk about it.
(crying)
♪ ♪
Joe Rogan: A lot of people were trying to attribute
all sorts of reasons for why he did it.
Goldthwait: Yeah. You know, Robin was my best pal
and-- and his coroner's report came out,
and he had Lewy body dementia.
-Oh. -Goldthwait: And I-I witnessed this.
I witnessed his processing reality completely different
than the way everybody else does.
And so when I think about that,
I think about how strong he was.
You know he would have like some days
where he was doing kind of OCD stuff
and-and-and-- and processing things incorrectly,
but then you'd have a day when he was back,
so you go, "Oh. Well, maybe it's"--
Rogan: He just had a bad day, or--
No, maybe it's the Parkinson's drugs,
and they've gotta get those dialed in.
He was going to doctors. He was in therapy.
He was doing-- and it just--
the only reason I talk about that is--
is his brain was giving him misinformation.
He really was getting misinformation from his own brain
and was suffering from this disease.
(gulls cawing)
In the weeks following my father's passing,
it was really hard to kind of... feel anything.
Everything felt very...
raw, and it was hard
to kinda put everything together.
Bobcat came and visited.
We felt like it would be a good idea to...
jump in the ocean.
And it turned out to be a really nice thing to do.
It was good to...
jump in, and-- and actually...
kinda know that...
my father's presence and spirit was around.
♪ ♪
Robin as John Keating: I would like you to step forward over here.
Peruse some of the faces from the past.
You've walked past them many times,
but I don't think you've really looked at them.
They're not that different from you, are they?
Same haircuts, full of hormones, just like you.
Invincible, just like you feel.
The world is their oyster.
They believe they're destined for great things,
just like many of you.
Their eyes are full of hope,
just like you.
Did they wait until it was too late
to make from their lives into even one iota
of what they were capable?
Because, you see, gentleman,
these boys are now fertilizing daffodils.
But, if you listen real close...
you can hear them whisper their legacy to you.
Go on, lean in.
Listen.
You hear it?
(whispers) Carpe...
Carpe diem.
Seize the day, boys.
Make your lives extraordinary.
♪ ♪
Robin: You've got to be crazy.
It's too late to be sane. Too late.
You've got to go full-tilt bozo.
(laughter)
'Cause you're only given
a little spark of madness,
and if you lose that...
you're nothing.
Note, from me to you...
Don't ever lose that, 'cause it keeps you alive.
♪ ♪
♪ Good night, Robin ♪
♪ Thanks for all the laughs ♪
♪ Thanks for all ♪
♪ The fun you brought ♪
♪ And all those ♪
♪ Silly photographs ♪
♪ Good night, Robin ♪
♪ Forever in your debt ♪
♪ The way you made us ♪
♪ Laugh and laugh ♪
♪ We never will forget ♪
♪ And though we'll never know ♪
♪ Just why you felt you had to go ♪
♪ We'll always miss you ♪
♪ And though we wonder why ♪
♪ You made us cry, we say goodbye ♪
♪ And wish that we could kiss you ♪
♪ Good night, Robin ♪
♪ Thanks for all the fun ♪
♪ Thanks for all the laughs you brought ♪
♪ And all the funny ♪
♪ Things you've done ♪
♪ Good night, Robin ♪
♪ It's hateful ♪
♪ That you've gone ♪
♪ But we're grateful ♪
♪ For that fateful day ♪
♪ You came along ♪
♪ Good night, old pal ♪