Pioneers of Television (2008–…): Season 4, Episode 5 - Robin Williams Remembered - full transcript
Celebrating the life of Robin Williams with interviews, tributes and clips from his career.
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I got lucky.
I won the lottery.
But when I met him, I just…
I fell in love with him.
She's really sweet and really
funny in her own right.
It was just so much fun.
That was part of that time,
I think.
You know, it was so huge
so quickly.
The feedback, the love,
the laughter just fed him.
It was just like
it lit up his brain.
And how do you
make sense of it all,
and part of it is laughter.
How are you,
lovely place, Michael.
My god, what a lovely
shade of tweed!
Obviously this is the…
It started here,
at the Comedy Store
in Hollywood.
I think those
very first audiences
here in the Comedy Store,
when they saw Robin,
it was like seeing
a tornado in person.
But I think at first
they were just in awe
of that energy that he had
when he came on.
Hello, how are you,
take this off.
They haven't set yet.
Hello!
This room
right here is hallowed ground
if you're a standup.
Look, look, look!
But Robin's like…
it was like they all gravitated,
the whole back wall,
there was a who's who of comics.
They said they knew immediately,
they knew the moment he opened
his mouth and started speaking.
He wasn't just
doing funny things.
He was doing it in
a brand-new way.
Robin Williams died
on August 11, 2014,
at the age of 63.
His death saddened the world,
but his work lives on.
You're exactly like him.
Oh, now, come on, now,
man, look at that, look at that.
He looks like he does his hair
with a Cuisinart.
Seize the day.
Gather ye rosebuds while ye may.
Hello!
Aaah!
You don't know about real loss,
'cause that only occurs
when you love something
more than you love yourself.
Aah!
Aaaah!
Bully!
Got you, boy.
We made it in the World Cup.
Everybody plays it,
not like the World Series,
because the French
don't have a baseball team.
If they did,
they would only have left field,
and no one would be safe.
He wasn't safe!
What can you do, huh?
It's a life and career
worth celebrating.
Young Robin Williams
didn't have many friends,
but he did have toy soldiers
and a non-stop imagination.
All alone in the attic,
he staged unlikely scenes…
Indians fighting Nazis,
or knights with airplanes.
An only child with
largely absent parents,
no one else saw
his creative spark,
until that day in high school,
when Robin Williams
stepped onstage
for the first time.
Senior year of high school,
they had like a class revue
where they got to
make fun of the teachers,
and I could do
a pretty dead-on impression
of a couple of them,
and that was the beginning of,
"Oh, this is nice."
After high school, Williams went
to Claremont College
to study political science,
but Claremont was
an all-men's school.
It turns out
the only place the ladies were
was the theater classes,
and specifically
the improvisational
theater classes.
And it was this beginning
of getting laughs,
especially around improvising,
which I went,
"You literally can
create it there in that space?"
"Yep." "Okay,
let's do this."
Despite his skill
creating laughter,
at age 21, Robin Williams didn't
see comedy as his future.
He wanted to be an actor
and moved to New York
after winning
a special scholarship
to the prestigious
Julliard Academy.
It was Christopher Reeve
and myself were
the two students.
He was chosen because
he's stunningly handsome
and I was chosen to be
a character actor,
which is kind of,
"Little hairy boy,
you be funny."
At Julliard, Williams' mentor
was John Houseman,
who had just finished
an Oscar-winning turn in
The Paper Chase,
playing a character that wasn't
far from his real-life persona.
Now that you're on your feet,
Mr. Hart,
maybe the class will be
able to understand you.
You are on your feet?
Yes, I'm on my feet.
Loudly, Mr. Hart.
Fill this room
with your intelligence.
And we sat down with Houseman,
and I remember…
I paraphrase this now,
but he was basically saying,
"Mr. Reeve, Mr. Williams,
the theater needs you.
You should go and be soldiers
in the army of the theater.
Unless of course you can make
[bleep]-loads of cash doing films.
I'm going off to sell Volvos."
Smith Barney.
They make money
the old fashioned way.
They earn it.
He was almost like
the Wizard of Oz.
Like, "Don't look behind
that curtain, boy."
But, you know,
pretty astonishing character,
and all these people
he'd gathered together
teach at Julliard
because of him, I think,
because he was so
kind of charismatic.
After Julliard,
Robin Williams returned
to San Francisco
to find acting work,
but opportunities were limited.
He started out as an actor
and discovered
he was sort of funny
and sort of went that way.
The turning point
came when Williams
heard about a coffee house
that offered comedy training.
They had workshops
and eventually they would have,
you know, performances,
which was great
because usually
the performances followed
an evening of lesbian poetry,
so it always in
an interesting audience
and really not ready for,
"Don't do that joke.
That one may not play very well
with the ladies
in comfortable shoes."
The response to
his comedy performances
in San Francisco
encouraged Williams
to take the next step…
moving to Los Angeles
to try his luck on stage,
in clubs, and improv groups,
slowly working out the bits
that would later
make him a star.
Before I read the poetry to you,
I wish to teach you
one phrase in Russian
in case you ever go
to Soviet Union.
It's necessary
to know this phrase.
Why am I under arrest?
First of all,
I think they were shocked,
they were taken aback,
like, "What is he doing?"
And they were, like,
just, you know,
they didn't know what
to do at first, I think.
First time an audience
ever saw Robin Williams
was like the first time
an audience
heard the Beatles
or Led Zeppelin.
At comedy clubs,
audiences are
notoriously fickle,
but Williams learned
from each performance.
Then you will get
the hostile drunks,
you know, the idea of,
you know, that,
and that becomes
a whole other game of,
you know,
how much do you engage them.
The heckler would be
like an amateur
in front of a master.
There was no way to win.
Yeah, he loved it.
That was more input,
that was more stuff
to work off of.
If they're really strange,
you can bring them up the stage
and direct them in a movie,
and that's just
really what they wanted,
was to be part of the action,
so let's make 'em
part of the action,
and that can be
very dangerous, too,
'cause then they won't leave.
"I'm not leaving.
This is going really well.
What about these?"
"Put it back."
It wasn't long
before Williams realized
that his classical theater
training at Julliard
paid dividends in the world
of stand-up comedy.
I remember there was
one show we did at a club
and it was the opening night
of this club
and the mics all broke
and the soundsystem went out
and the guys went,
"What are we gonna do,
what are we gonna do,"
and, "I can talk loud,"
and that was the first time,
and then it kind of also
determined my style
of just being off-mic
and not a standing target,
working the whole audience
and using that ability
to project my voice
to kind of change
the perspective in the room,
so that was the beginning of
using literally
one of those skills.
Wandering over here,
nice to wander back…
Thank you.
Oh, we're just
going to work on this.
We're going to
tease it a little.
How about those 49ers?
Do you think they're ever
going to work again?
I don't know, let's look over…
Let's just look over here
a second.
Okay, we're going to
pull a little up here.
Hare Krishna, Hare…
sorry, right now she's going,
"I worked all day on that!"
Ooh, mmm, more smoke.
I want to die.
He would always take
a person's purse.
I remember him taking a purse
and just like literally
doing like 15 or 20 minutes
on what was in the purse.
He was ball lightning
and he was author,
director, actor,
at the speed of light.
He enjoyed the audience
almost as much
as the audience enjoyed him.
He loved being there.
When it works,
there's nothing better,
when it doesn't work,
there's nothing worse.
Hence the metaphor is
you kill or die.
There's no room to…
the metaphors are pretty brutal.
"You killed."
Or "you maimed."
You know, then when you
don't do well, "You died."
At the Comedy Store,
Williams' reputation grew
and he began to rub shoulders
with a new generation of comics.
Richard Pryor
on in the main room.
Oh, god, and then, you know,
people coming on…
Michael Richards coming onstage
with little soldiers
and giving them directions,
just bizarre stuff
going on in… it was like
a three-ring circus.
One night,
producer George Schlatter
stopped by the Comedy Store
looking for talent
to cast in a revival
of TV's Laugh-In.
I'd never seen
anything like that,
and of course there never was
anything like that.
Follow me, miss.
I'll take you to my room.
Don't be afraid,
I'm the only normal one.
He had this straw hat
and these coveralls, barefoot.
I saw your new movie,
and it inspired me
to write a song for it.
It's called "The Hormone Blues."
- Oh, it's wonderful.
- Would you like to hear it?
- Sure.
- Okay.
♪ Went to bed last night ♪
♪ with hair upon my chest ♪
♪ I woke up this morning with ♪
♪ a couple of beautiful breasts ♪
♪ You know I'm changing ♪
Thank you, ma'am.
Wow. She touched me like
she knew me, Marlene!
- Take a bath.
- Yeah.
Jimmy Stewart was awestruck.
Jimmy Stewart just babbled.
Finally, Jimmy turned around
and said, "Gloria!"
Want to grow weeds?
Yeah, big ones, tall ones,
and then sell 'em.
Who's going to eat weeds?
No, not eat 'em.
It's another thing.
I don't… I don't… Gloria!
The new Laugh-In failed,
but it helped Williams
land a role
on another variety show,
this one hosted by
the most innovative comic
of the era, Richard Pryor.
What's your problem?
Oh, Mr. Mojo,
I got a bad arm!
I can't move it!
He got a bad arm!
And he can't move it!
Aaaaah!
Let mojo heal it!
Pryor's humor
was far too unconventional
for NBC and the series
didn't last long,
but Williams and Pryor
became lifelong friends.
It's like seeing great jazz.
Nothing like a kid.
I love children,
because they talk so straight.
You know,
when you saw him kick it hard,
it would just be like
broken-field running.
And you ask them questions,
they never
answer you straight, right?
They go, "What happened?"
"When? When?
First, first thing"…
Or he'd find a character
that would just be so…
so painful,
but at the same time, so funny.
And "I didn't do it."
In the last couple of years
before he died,
I went to visit him,
and he had heavy MS,
and I did for him
an African voodoo dance
to ward off ex-wives.
And I knew that it was great
because his laugh,
he'd just go, "Aaaaah!"
I said, ".
Alimony.
Half.
Half,.
And you'd just
see him go, "Aaaah!"
But the greatest thing of all
was to get a laugh out of him
because it's like
seeing Buddha crack it up.
It was wonderful,
because you know if
you got a laugh from him…
and he would say,
"Damn you, it's funny!
Aaaah!"
After The Richard Pryor Show
ended in 1977,
Robin Williams remained
a struggling unknown,
until he auditioned
for a sitcom about 1950s
suburban teens
called Happy Days.
Whoa, whoa, whoa!
Greetings, Fonzie!
Remember me, Mork from Ork?
You once called me
"The Nutso From Outer Space."
I think I must be dreaming or
something like that, you know?
And I had this audition for
ostensibly an alien
on Happy Days,
and the reason that show
was being done… people were,
"An alien on Happy Days?"
No se ya se,
not that kind of alien.
But the idea that it was just…
that Garry Marshall's son
had seen Star Wars
and he thought,
"Can we have an alien
on Happy Days?"
And that would have
been a great…
I would have liked to have
been there when Garry went,
"I don't know.
It's the '60s.
There was no abduction…
alien abductions,
and we're definitely not doing
any rectal probes."
But the idea of an alien on
Happy Days came from that,
and then they
started auditioning
pretty much every standup comic
they could find
to come in and play this alien.
We just started
rehearsing like normal,
and then Robin Williams
opened his mind and his mouth,
and I'm telling you,
you forgot where you were.
I think I want to wake up now.
Strange custom.
Doesn't give me pleasure.
And I went in and basically
just started talking in
a weird kind of helium voice
and sat on my head
and just started off
just playing,
and then I just…
because I went,
"What have you got to lose?"
All right,
let me get this straight.
If I win, you don't take
the specimen here.
You read me, creature.
Creature?
You want to rumble?
Rumble!
♪ Da da da da da ♪
And they went, "Yes!"
And I went, "Serious?"
And so I got the gig.
I had one job
and one job only…
to keep a straight face.
Aaaah!
We must introduce
the local celebrity.
Can we get on with this now?
Whatever you said,
he absorbed it,
it washed around
in his Williamsness,
and shot back at you.
I just come in
just trying anything.
I went,
"Can I try this one?"
"What's to lose?"
"Hey."
So it's me just
playing off of them
and it turned out
to be very popular.
I mean, it was kind of weird
because people were going,
"What's this in the middle
of Happy Days?"
It did very well.
It did so well,
ABC fast-tracked a new series
for Williams' alien character
called Mork & Mindy.
And I start watching Robin,
and all of a sudden,
I realized that I am like
the luckiest girl in the world,
laughing out loud all by myself
in my agent's office.
And then, you know,
I said to my agent,
"Sign me up.
This guy is brilliant."
So, you're from outer space.
Yes. You mind if I take
a few pictures
for the folks
on the home planet?
They'd like to get
some postcards.
No.
Okay, watch the blookie.
When I met him
and I said, "Hey, Mork,"
I said, "I'm Mindy."
And he goes, he goes,
"Oh, it's very…
very nice to meet you.
I'm very excited
to be working with you."
And I said, "Oh. Me too."
And I went back.
I said, "Is he…
is he Russian?"
She goes, "He's not Russian.
He's nuts!"
The wonderful news
is she's really sweet
and really funny
in her own right,
and I could just go off the wall
and do strange things,
and because I'm an alien,
it's okay.
- How do I look?
- You look real nice,
except don't forget to
hold in your stomach.
Ooh! Well,
you dressed up for me.
Oh, I've got a big
interview today.
- How do I look?
- Oh, real nice,
but don't forget to
hold in your thighs.
For me,
it was almost an acting class,
because I've never
done improvisation,
so I'm like, "Oh, my god,
he didn't give me a line,
he didn't give me a line.
I've got to get us
out the door."
And so I started
thinking on my feet.
Before the first episode aired,
the press was dubious.
Alien shows didn't have
a stellar track record.
But once America saw
Mork & Mindy for the first time,
Robin Williams
became an sensation.
It's still in
people's consciousness
from that time,
and people, "Diddy-diddy."
"You mean 'nanu-nanu.'"
"Yeah, that's it."
But it's the thing of…
you know, it just kind of…
it struck a chord because it
was so kind of
out of left field in that way,
but it was a blast.
The first year was crazy fun.
It was just so much fun.
Aaaah!
I'm going home, mama!
Waaah!
Hey! Don't take away
my gusto!
Ah, help me, I'm melting!
The first year, basically…
they're basically just
taking things from my
standup act and putting it in.
It was basically me
learning about humans
and at the end having the thing
of talking to Orson every week.
Mork calling Orson,
come in, Orson.
This is Orson.
What's the matter with you?
Me? Nothing.
You've got
a strange look on your face.
Maybe it's love.
It was just me playing,
having a good time,
and having Pam standing there
and kind of holding the middle
of explaining things
and being patient,
and occasionally we'd have
a kind of warm and fuzzy moment
of like, "Oh, that's love.
Oh, cool, wonderful.
Nice to know that, Mindy."
Mindy,
I'd like to kiss my pal.
All right.
Whoa!
Those little moments
just worked.
I don't know, he just, um…
I don't know,
it was just a certain magic time
and we were in it together.
Rapid heart beat.
Temperature rising.
I get it.
What did you get?
I think I know what made
those car windows
steam up at the drive-in.
People remember
the silliest stuff.
You know,
"What's your favorite planet?"
"Pluto." "Why?"
"Because it's
a Mickey Mouse planet."
It's like,
"Why does that joke work?"
And just people would remember
the thing about,
"Fly, be free,"
where I'd take eggs
and throw them up
and they'd crash.
It's against intergalactic law
to eat fellow space travelers.
Fly, be free!
Well, I guess we'll have to have
a quick burial at sea, then.
I'll notify your next of kin!
Your brother bit the big one.
Williams' jokes came so fast,
it was a challenge
to keep up with him,
especially for
the network censors.
We would try different things
and it was just kind of
to see what could get
under the radar.
No, Mork, you don't understand.
I was expecting
a special letter.
Oh, let me give you one.
How about K?
Maybe an F, or a U!
Standards and Practice people
were like, "No, nope, nope.
You're not saying that."
Eventually they had to have
a censor who spoke…
I think spoke Spanish,
three or four
different languages,
because I was sneaking things in
in different languages
and they went,
"She knows what that means."
"Really? How sad."
Because I was using…
sometimes Mork
would speak Yiddish.
", Mindy."
Mork & Mindy
was performed in front of
a studio audience,
a longstanding technique
that especially benefits
comedians like Williams,
who need the feedback of
an audience reaction.
Once that audience was in,
it was a whole…
He was just like, "Bing!"
He was just, go on…
you know, he's on the set,
he's climbing
through the audience,
he's playing with the band,
he was… you know,
I mean, it was insane,
but it was so much fun.
People forget that Chaplin,
when he did a lot of his movies,
was performing
in front of people,
that they sometimes
would have…
a lot of the silent comedians
would have like…
because there was no soundtrack,
they'd have an audience so they
know where the laughs were.
Or he would take it out
as stage productions.
Like the Marx Brothers did
all of their movies
as stage productions first
so they knew where
all the laughs were.
Sometimes we'd have to film
a show without the audience
and he didn't like it,
and he felt flat.
On Thursday nights,
Mork & Mindy jumped to
the top of the ratings,
but then network executives
began to tinker with
the winning formula.
I remember this one
network executive said,
"You're the funniest man
I've seen since Jack Carter."
I went, "Thank you,
somewhat."
It was just like…
that was just a bizarre thing.
And as the show went on,
you know, we had…
you know,
the first year was good,
second year was good,
and then the network
started to…
they got kind of greedy.
We're very unhappy with
the ridiculous, the bad…
what they did to that show.
They put us on different nights,
and then in order
to jack up the ratings,
they decided to…
literally one of the episodes
was myself, Raquel Welch,
and two Playboy bunnies,
former Playboy centerfolds,
I think.
I am Captain Nirvana
of the Necroton Black Army.
Kama, Sutra.
Fall in.
Orkan, you have
exactly five seconds
to get your meaningless life
together in one bucket.
Mindy, those are Necrotons.
They're as mean
as they are ugly.
There were a lot of little kids
who went through puberty
watching that episode.
I think that…
that really changed the…
and we lost a lot of
the audience.
And then I was dressed as
a Denver Bronco cheerleader,
and at that point it was just,
you know, okay,
we're starting to go away
from the innocent Mork
into like this bizarre
transvestite comedy.
Hey, Mork!
Hey, Mork!
Woo!
For the fourth season
of Mork & Mindy,
the producers decided
to add a new character,
played by the only comedian
who could match Robin Williams'
spontaneous comic energy…
Jonathan Winters.
You don't have to leave, sir.
You can't leave the bitter
memories in your mind.
Why not leave
with something sweet?
Like, I have this
delicious dessert I made,
and you have to try it, please.
You know, incidentally,
you seem like
the only normal one here.
In many ways, Jonathan Winters
had paved the way
for Robin Williams
as television's first
improvisational genius.
It's sort of man against
the jungle, you might say.
You know, malaria, yellow fever.
Animals.
No offense, Rodney.
You see, I'll be
shoving off before long…
Look, you're into me
for 200 now.
Keep your hands out of there.
He made it possible for me
to think that
you can do anything.
He made it possible
to do voices, characters,
sound effects,
and all those different things
that just opened the world up.
He was morphing
before the technology.
So that was for me like
the beginning of like, "Wow."
Tell me, Mr. Groundhog,
do you predict six miserable,
lousy weeks of weather
ahead of us or not?
I don't know anything
about the weather, Jack.
I can tell you that
it's just a crummy hole
I live in down there.
It's rotten, it's damp,
the missus is about
the ugliest broad
I have ever seen.
I'll leave you alone.
Now, Robin Williams
said to me one time,
"Pops, you're my mentor."
And I said,
"No, don't… listen.
Don't say 'mentor.'
In Ohio they think
that's a salve.
Say 'idol.'
Everybody gets that.
I love 'idol.'"
I remember seeing him,
watching him with my father,
and my dad was kind of,
you know, very kind of
quiet like this,
and Jonathan did a thing
where he came on one time
on The Tonight Show
with Jack Paar
and he came out and said…
and Jack said,
"What are you?"
What are you?
I'm the Voice of Spring.
I bring you some little goodies
from the forest.
And I saw my Dad lose it
and I went, "Okay, this guy.
I like this guy."
Wheee!
It took me 45 minutes
to get that in there.
Oh, I'm sorry, I'm sorry.
In the forest, we don't care.
When we had Jonathan on,
it was amazing,
because he and I…
they would just do these things,
like, "Jonathan and Robin
riff here."
I was kicked out of Santa, sir.
They found me in a dress.
Doesn't make any difference.
They found you in what?
A gown.
A gown's better.
One time we did
a World War I takeoff.
They shot for like 45 minutes,
to the point where
the cameras were
running out of film.
They were like machine gunners
at Guadalcanal.
"I'm out!
Get a gunner to Camera 3!"
And were just riffing.
They're coming, father, look!
Thousands of Huns,
Germans, Bosch!
Germans and Bosch!
What's the Bosch?
- Small soup with beets.
- I suppose.
And then eventually they would
cut it down to five minutes.
Once Jonathan Winters came on,
that was chaos.
I have to say, that was tough,
and some of the shows
didn't make any sense
because the two of them…
you know, Robin was like,
"Yeah!" Everything was
a free-for-all.
Ow, ow, my hand, my hand!
I'm sorry, sorry, take it out!
I'm hurt, I'm hurt!
I know you are,
but you've killed
the old man with
four fingers in his head!
Well, it's two crazy guys,
you know,
that had just been released
from a major hospital,
and, "Ha, ha, ha,
we're on the playground now,
you'll never get us.
We can get in that Jeep
and roll away, bye-bye."
And he is on full throttle.
Robin could go off,
do some brilliant
improvisational thing,
and come back.
Jonathan would go off and you'd
never see him again.
Looks like
the bloody war's over.
- No, sir.
- What a shame.
And no action.
You know, I can't…
no, it's my medallions.
There we are.
And the people say,
"Did you get pictures of Robin?"
No.
They got blurred.
He got out,
"Did you get a picture?"
"No, I almost got
the camera out."
This is a tough guy to catch,
tough guy to catch.
I love the guy.
It's amazing stuff
that Jonathan would just go off,
"I don't know anymore, no, no,"
and he'd play
this petulant little kid like,
"No, I won't do that
anymore, Dad,"
and then he'd see
a beautiful woman and going,
"But her I understand."
"Easy."
As Mork & Mindy's
ratings declined
in the fourth season,
Robin Williams' need
for affirmation increased.
After a full day on the set,
it's wasn't unusual for him to
perform at comedy clubs
until 1:00 or 2:00
in the morning.
With comedians,
the time they're the most alive
is when they're onstage,
and then the other time
I think is really hard for them.
He was running.
I mean, Robin's life…
Robin just ran.
Ran, ran, ran, ran,
ran as fast as he could
from one gig to another,
to people's apartments,
to the Comedy Store and back.
As fame starts to diminish,
it starts to become…
you become less famous
or not as hot.
That's also another part of it,
like,
"Well, what do you mean,"
you know?
By the fourth year
of Mork & Mindy,
it was clear the series
had run its course
and would be cancelled.
That's the part of… that…
that's the other part
of the drill, of like,
"Uh-oh, it's going away."
And then you get kind of like,
"All right,
I remember you
used to do this…
there's lots more
people here."
But yeah, that's… that was
part of that time, I think.
You know, it was so huge
so quickly
and then it kind of
started to… you know,
by the fourth year, it was like,
"No, not so much, though."
Robin would come to my house.
This was after Mork & Mindy
was canceled.
All of a sudden,
the buzzer would ring.
"Dawber, it's Robin."
"Oh. Okay."
He would… he wanted to
communicate with me,
but he didn't know how.
He'd go from the couch to
the TV to the phone
to the refrigerator to the ba,
the da.
In 15 minutes, he's gone.
And if you'd try to
talk to him about stuff,
he was uncomfortable.
As Mork & Mindy
was coming to a close,
Williams was jolted by two major
life-changing experiences.
His first child was born
and his close friend
John Belushi
died from a drug overdose.
Williams was with Belushi
just hours before
Belushi passed away.
A guy who could do anything,
gone.
You think you're tough?
No.
Puss compared to him.
And that… I mean,
it got me going… two things.
It got my ass clean
at that point,
him going and my
first son being born.
I didn't want to be like, "Hey,
here's a little switch.
Daddy's going to
throw up on you," you know?
You know, you don't need drugs
when you have a kid.
You're awake, you're paranoid.
Williams quit the drug
and alcohol lifestyle,
and his career seemed
on a major uptick
as he landed coveted movie roles
like Popeye.
The critics were vicious to him
in Popeye, but, hey,
if you could find
a better Popeye,
I don't know what it is.
Popeye bombed at the box office
and Williams feared
his acting career was over.
Desperate for a creative outlet,
he returned to standup.
But you must be careful,
especially when smoking
a little marijuana.
Yes, yes.
Yes, the police,
the police have a new test.
What they do is
they pull you over,
they get out of their car,
walk toward you like this.
"Will you get out of the car?"
And you're trying to be cool,
you're trying to maintain,
going,."
"Get in the damn car!"".
Standup's hard.
I mean, going on the road
is the toughest gig of all.
But is it rewarding?
Yeah.
But is it hard work?
Oh, yes.
And as you get older,
it's like it's harder work,
you know?
I had heart surgery halfway
through the last tour.
You know, "Almost killed you,
You're back!
Hee hee, way to go!"
And they started
offering me choices
about what type of valves
I can get,
and here were
some of my choices.
Number one, a porcine valve,
which is a pig valve,
which is kind of cool because
you're already
inoculated with swine flu,
number one.
And one of the side effects
says you can find truffles,
which is kind of cool.
You have things sitting
in the back of your mind,
you're thinking, "Well, yeah,
there's ideas of…
Yeah, this might work.
Maybe, yeah, mmm…"
And then you'll…
and here's the coefficient
that makes it all work
is the audience.
You know, you haven't…
you can think about
these things alone,
and a lot of times you are,
and then you take it out
in front of people
and they go, this works
or this doesn't work,
and it's a combination of,
okay, this might be
the wrong audience
for this routine,
or this is the perfect group
to do it for.
And it's just that… you know,
it is that… you know,
if it's that moment
and it's right,
it's pretty amazing.
His very first
standup special on HBO
was a major hit,
giving Robin Williams new hope.
Well, why wouldn't Robin
come back to standup?
He had to come back to standup.
When you're the world's
greatest standup,
you come back to standup.
That's the thing that kept
my sanity alive
in the face of
Mork & Mindy disappearing,
Popeye not doing so well,
and then just going,
"Okay, that's the thing that
I still can do
that I actually
literally earn money
and also keep… you know,
keep my chops alive."
My god, Nanook of Norinne.
My god!
This is a lovely…
look at this thing.
Right now there's a whole
bunch of animals going,
"[bleep], is it cold? Jesus!"
Woo!
Robin Williams,
people say,
"We like you so much,
we're going to take
a day and a half's pay
and pay our money
to see you."
That's when you're a star.
That's when you're rolling.
Oh, I guess you couldn't
afford the bottom fur.
And I feel like
Liberace right now,
going, "Just leave me
the candelabra, damn you,
leave me the candelabra."
This is wonderful.
Robin's wearing the lovely pants
from Hefty Bag.
♪ La di di da ♪
Despite the success
of his HBO special,
Robin Williams didn't
see standup as his destiny.
He wanted to act,
and not just in comic roles.
Landing the lead in
The World According to Garp
gave him that opportunity,
and on the very first day,
director George Roy Hill
helped Williams
begin the transition.
The first day I was
working on Garp,
I started improvising,
and he went,
"Just say the lines and commit
to that and go with that."
Do you think I might be
a real writer?
I do.
Oh, I do!
Oh, ha ha.
Oh.
And you said you'd
only marry a real writer.
I did.
And I do.
I do, too.
The World According to Garp
opened doors for Robin Williams,
demonstrating his ability to
play a wide emotional range,
which he built on in
Moscow on the Hudson.
Tell me, Lev.
When you speak English,
does your mouth hurt?
My mouth is fine.
My brain's what hurts.
Oh. When I speak English,
my lips,
my tongue hurt.
One time he came
over to me and said…
Which means, "You make me feel
like a natural woman."
Made my day, I'll tell you that.
In 1987,
Williams felt safe returning to
his comedy roots,
playing a fast-talking funnyman
in Good Morning Vietnam,
a role that would earn Williams
his first
Academy Award nomination.
Goooood morning, Vietnam!
Hey, this is not a test.
This is rock 'n' roll!
For these radio station scenes,
Williams ad-libbed
hours of material.
Director Barry Levinson had
the difficult job
of picking the best bits.
What is a demilitarized zone?
Sounds like something
out of Wizard of Oz.
"Oh, no, don't go in there."
♪ Oh-we-oh, Hoh Chi Minh ♪
"Look, you've landed in Saigon.
You're among
the little people now."
♪ We represent the ARVN Army, ♪
♪ the ARVN Army ♪
"Oh, hello.
Follow the Ho Chi Minh Trail.
Follow
the Ho Chi Minh Trail."
We'd done like about
18 hours of radio stuff,
and I said to Barry Levinson,
I said,
"Do you think we have enough?"
He went, "I think so, yeah."
Because I was worried…
"Do we have to do more?"
You have to slow
the footage down to see that
it's at dolphin chatter speed.
It's data full.
It's just playing
at the speed of light.
And he's switching characters
and becoming ten,
15 people in each bit.
"What's the weather like
out there?"
"It's hot.
Damn hot, real hot.
Hottest things is my shorts.
I can cook things in it.
Little crotch pot cooking."
"Well, can you tell me
what it feels like?"
"Fool, it's hot!
I told you again!
Were you born on the sun?
It's damn hot."
I did a character
for dinner one night,
a dinner with him that was
kind of an Asian…
a gay Asian fashion consultant.
"First of all,
before you go to combat,
you want to have colors
that don't clash."
So he said, "Put that on…
do that on the radio."
I went, "Okay."
"You know, this whole
camouflage thing for me
doesn't work very well."
"Why is that?"
"Because you go in the jungle,
I can't see you!
You know, it's like wearing
stripes and plaid.
For me, I want you to do
something different.
You know, you go in the jungle,
make a statement.
If you're going to fight,
clash!"
And a lot of the stuff
was just based on,
you know, characters around
or just things that…
he said, "Try that guy."
It's almost like
you would see him,
"Scanning, scanning, scanning,"
and then he'd see it
and then he'd start to
enjoy it himself
and it was going to be good.
You could really see that in
Good Morning, Vietnam.
In Awakenings,
director Penny Marshall
helped Robin Williams through
his most challenging role yet…
playing opposite Robert De Niro.
And so I had De Niro.
Now I had to get someone to
counter that energy of Bobby's.
Penny Marshall
persuaded Williams
to take the role,
but he was worried
Robert De Niro would
overshadow his character.
Robin was afraid Bobby would…
I said, "That's my job,
is to make it so
you're both equal."
And he trusted me
and Bob trusted me.
It's late.
Everyone's asleep.
Oh.
I'm not asleep.
No…
You're awake.
I'd go like that to him.
That was my symbol to Robin.
To Robin, yeah.
More… balls.
Stronger. Yeah.
What does that mean?
Yeah, thank you.
More balls.
Mas cojones.
Thank you.
I guess because it was the idea
because sometimes it could be
so kind of intellectual when
you're playing a character.
At one point, Bob De Niro was so
intensely into the experience
of being suffering
from encephalitis lethargica
that Oliver wanted to
hook him up to an EEG to see if
he duplicated the brain waves.
That's beyond method acting.
I mean,
at that point you're going,
"Come back, come back."
L.
Leonard.
L.
To the surprise of many,
Robin Williams did not receive
an Academy Award nomination
for Awakenings.
Robin was… got gypped because
he didn't get nominated
or anything.
I did have a non-nominees party,
because me, Robin… you know,
the movie, Bobby, the writers,
everyone got nominated.
But not us,
so we had a non-nominees party.
Robin Williams'
dry spell didn't last long.
In the next few years,
he was nominated for both
The Fisher King
and Dead Poets Society.
Why do I stand up here?
- Anybody.
- To feel taller.
No.
Thank you for playing,
Mr. Dalton.
I stand upon my desk
to remind myself
that we must constantly
look at things
in a different way.
He was brilliant.
That's him!
That's Robin.
That's the Robin I knew.
O Captain, my Captain.
Sit down, Mr. Anderson.
Do you hear me?
Sit down.
Sit down!
This is your final warning,
Anderson.
How dare you?
Do you hear me?
O Captain, my Captain.
Mr. Overstreet,
I warned you.
Sit down.
Sit down!
Sit down, all of you!
I want you seated.
Sit down.
Leave, Mr. Keating.
I wrote him a love letter after
I saw Dead Poets Society,
because he was so real
and he was so who he is, was.
Despite his success
in dramatic films,
Robin Williams also
continued in comic roles,
including a turn as a woman
in Mrs. Doubtfire.
Hello.
Mrs. Hillard,
I presume?
Yes, I'm Miranda Hillard.
Euphegenia Doubtfire.
Yes. Won't you
please come in?
Thank you, dear.
Using the kind of
the mask skills
in Mrs. Doubtfire of,
you know,
it's kind of like
interior puppeteering.
Both personalities
were in the other room
talking to this other person.
"Mrs. Sellner here to see you."
"Oh, is she here?"
"Yes, dear, she is."
"Oh, Mrs. Sellner!
I just got out of the shower.
I think you'll be
fairly pleased with me.
I've been through some
really interesting changes."
And I thought, "Oh, my god,
that is like flawless.
He's zooming back
and forth seamlessly.
I don't know if
I could do that."
He's just changing, dear.
"Yes, I want to keep you abreast
of some of the changes
in my career."
Splendid, wonderful,
magnificent.
In Aladdin, Robin Williams
broke new ground again,
becoming the first major star
to voice an animated character.
Whooooa, whoa,
does it feel good
to be out of there!
I tell you, nice to be back,
ladies and gentlemen.
Hi, where are you from?
What's your name?
Uh, uh, Aladdin.
Aladdin! Hello, Aladdin,
nice to have you on the show.
Can we call you Al?
Or maybe just Din?
Or how about Laddie?
Sounds like, "Here, boy.
Come on, Laddie!"
Cone on, kid, see?
Nearly all Williams'
lines were ad-libbed.
The producers wisely let him
say whatever he liked.
Yo, rug man, haven't seen you
in a few millennia.
Give me some tassel.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Say. You're a lot smaller
than my last master.
Either that or
I'm getting bigger.
Look at me from the side.
Do I look different to you?
Wait, wait a minute.
In 1998,
Robin Williams finally won
an Academy Award,
for his role in
Good Will Hunting.
You don't know about real loss,
because that only occurs
when you love something
more than you love yourself.
And don't you ever dare
to love anybody that much.
Williams' director for
Good Will Hunting
was Gus Van Sant.
The greatest
directors are the ones
that are almost like road cones,
that they set the idea that
if you bump over it, going,
"That's too much."
With Gus Van Sant on
Good Will Hunting,
I found myself by the end,
he said, "Just… you know,
just have the conversation,
just talk."
So you're not "acting" per se
but eventually the things
start to happen,
I realized, "How did that go?"
He went, "It was amazing because
you're just talking about…
You're talking ostensibly and it
becomes more and more intimate."
I look at you,
I don't see an intelligent,
confident man.
I see a cocky,
scared [bleep]-less kid.
But you're a genius, Will.
No one denies that.
No one could possibly understand
the depths of you.
I'd finish a scene going,
"Was that okay?
Because I was just
talking to him."
He went, "That's wonderful.
That's what it should be."
And not to say that sometimes
underacting can be
just as dangerous as overacting,
you know, where people just go,
"What?"
"I'm saying that I love you."
"What?"
"I love you."
"What?"
"I love you."
"Oh, cool, you love me."
The linear
and impressionistic mix
makes a very
muddled composition.
It's also a Winslow Homer ripoff
except you've got whitey
rowing about there.
Well, it's art, Monet.
It wasn't very good.
That's not really what
concerns me, though.
- What concerns you?
- Just the coloring.
You know what
the real bitch of it is?
It's paint by number.
To listen to someone and to
be there listening with intent
and to be there focused
and with them,
present with them,
is just as powerful
and in some cases
and some characters
even more so.
The scariest guy in a bar
is the quiet guy.
And the guy… that's where
that line came from
in Good Will Hunting
where they said…
oh, you know, when he starts
mouthing off about my wife,
and I said,
"I will end you."
That's it, isn't it?
You married the wrong woman.
What happened?
What, she leave you?
Was she, you know,
banging some other guy?
If you ever disrespect
my wife again,
I will end you.
That came from somebody
that Matt I think saw in a bar,
this little guy,
and this big guy
kept pushing him,
you know, "You little [bleep],
I'll kick your ass."
And this guy just…
this little guy
just walked up to him and said,
"I will end you."
And the big guy walked away.
Got that, chief?
Time's up.
Yeah.
You were never thinking about
Robin Williams the standup.
You were thinking
about Robin Williams the man.
By his early 50s,
Robin Williams had found success
in almost every venue…
standup, television,
animation, movies…
but he never stopped looking
for more challenges.
Willing to take chances,
and you've got to in order
to keep exploring.
You have to do that in order to
push the parameters,
to see…
to see what's out there.
Some people think that
this is a job for a clerk.
They actually believe
that any idiot that
attends a two-day seminar
can master the art of making
beautiful prints
in less than an hour.
One Hour Photo, which is…
I never had people
more creeped out by a movie
in their life.
I had a kid come up to me
and go,
"That thing scared the…
out of me, Mr. Wilson."
Get on the bed.
Get on the [bleep] bed!
Look, look, I've got plenty
of cash in my pants.
Shut up.
Close the drapes.
Close them!
Who told you to do that?
I closed the drapes.
Did I tell you to wrap
a towel around yourself?
By all accounts,
Williams' real-life personality
was the opposite of his
One Hour Photo character.
He was a caring person with
a desire to help others,
a man who went to extraordinary
efforts to do the right thing.
He always had time for you,
to talk to you,
to catch up on you.
Every comic you talk to
had his own personal
relationship with him
in a sense that he knew you,
he knew about your kid,
your old lady,
how are things going.
He'd ask you those questions,
and you'd say, "Really?"
As much as he had and as much
as he was willing to give
and as much as he
made people happy,
he had to deal with an equal
amount that was difficult,
and I think what
he did so gallantly
and unfortunately
unsuccessfully in the end
is he was able to
keep that darkness at bay
as long as he could.
Starting in 1986,
Robin Williams dedicated himself
to Comic Relief,
raising millions
for people in need.
There really was a need to kind
of address homelessness
and the lack of care,
and it was the idea
of literally
getting health care.
And now tonight they're here
for the reunion
we've all been hoping for.
The masters of merriment,
well, amyl nitrate,
My heart's kicking faster.
Those princes of polka,
Yosh and Stan,
the Shmenge Brothers!
And the idea of, you know,
gathering together
and getting across
ostensibly a tough,
tough message, but with comedy
that you could juxtapose
amazing comics.
♪ He's so excited ♪
- How have you been?
- Good.
I'm so really happy.
And we cross.
♪ Ooh ooh ooh, ow! ♪
- ♪ Ooh ooh ooh ♪
- Make a wish!
In his 50s and 60s,
Williams fell
back into depression
and relapsed into alcoholism,
but he fought back
over and over,
got treatment,
and rebuilt his life.
He was determined
to use his gifts
to make a difference
in the world.
You deserve the best.
You're incredible.
Thank you so much.
Merry Christmas, happy new year.
No entertainer made more trips
to war-torn Afghanistan
and Iraq than Robin Williams.
But I come here…
for you, because I believe
you're amazing.
He felt a special
kinship to soldiers
who found themselves
far from home.
Uh-oh!
I'm not gonna forget that.
I've never had
an entire audience just go,
"Forget you!"
You have no idea!
I was also wondering what's
coming from that way.
When you say, "Who's the
heavily-armed Amish guy?"
And they go,
"He's Special Forces."
"Oh, cool."
If you could have seen him with
those troops over there,
I mean, he…
you could feel his love
and respect and admiration for
those young men and women.
He literally had to be
dragged away several times
because he was
posing for pictures
with whoever wanted a picture.
He did whatever he could
for those guys.
He was amazing.
My favorite thing,
I did a show once in Kabul
and there's a guy in the front
that has a thing that says…
He's wearing a uniform
and he's dark-haired
and he's got a thing
that says Jose,
so I keep going,
"Jose, que paso?"
And he just looks at me
like this,
and eventually he's laughing,
I do some other stuff,
and afterwards,
I asked this guy,
Special Forces guy,
"Who's the guy in front, Jose?
'Cause it seems like
he didn't have a good time."
He said, "Oh, no,
he loves you, man."
I went, "Really?
Where's he from?"
He said, "He's an Afghan.
He's an assassin.
He works with us."
And I was like, "Cool,
I'm glad he likes me."
And you can see on their faces
that they're just excited,
but him.
He looks excited.
He looks excited to be there.
Just for him to step down
and walk into
a bunch of soldiers
having a cigarette
and dreaming about home,
they'd turn around and they'd,
"Wow!" They'd scream like
a 16 year old girl
at an NSYNC concert.
You know, this howl,
you know, and it was…
it was… it made you forget
you were in a war, you know?
Robin was just there for that.
I mean, Robin ran to the rescue.
That's the kind of person
he was.
Whoa! Whoa!
What's up?
Hi. All of a sudden,
I've got balloons.
I'm lap dancing.
Let's do this.
Gooood evening, Bagram!
The first time in Afghanistan
where you're like in…
because it was just after…
it was right after
they went in to Afghanistan
where you're performing
in little tiny spaces because
it couldn't be outdoors
because you're a target,
and there was…
It was pretty wild to be there
and just see these faces,
and you'd look out and you'd go,
they're the same age as my son.
I wish you from my heart
a Merry Christmas,
Happy Hanukah, Happy Kwanzaa,
to my brothers.
You know who you are.
And I shall return, as they say.
He wanted to do whatever
he could for those guys
no matter what.
I mean, if they'd have said,
"Here, take this weapon
and go out here
and stand a post,"
he'd have done it!
You come back humbled,
you know, in a good way.
As a boy, Robin Williams
played with toy soldiers
all by himself.
Toward the end of his life,
he was still
playing with soldiers,
but he wasn't alone anymore.
He was beloved by
men and women in uniform
and by the whole world.
That little boy in the attic
came out of his shell
and brought joy to millions
for 63 years.
That he was willing to say,
"I'm still that little boy."
I think he'll be remembered
as a gentle soul
who traveled at
the speed of light.
Why?
Why?
Why?
We'll never see his like again.
I think everybody realizes this.
This is once-in-a-lifetime
person,
not just the talent
but the person that he was.
Don't go.
We need you.
He's missed.
He's missed.
It's like somebody
chopped your leg off.
You'll never walk the same.
I hope he rests in peace.
If only he understood
what happened to the world
when he decided to leave.
The whole world was in mourning.
and ideas.
Support your PBS station.
I got lucky.
I won the lottery.
But when I met him, I just…
I fell in love with him.
She's really sweet and really
funny in her own right.
It was just so much fun.
That was part of that time,
I think.
You know, it was so huge
so quickly.
The feedback, the love,
the laughter just fed him.
It was just like
it lit up his brain.
And how do you
make sense of it all,
and part of it is laughter.
How are you,
lovely place, Michael.
My god, what a lovely
shade of tweed!
Obviously this is the…
It started here,
at the Comedy Store
in Hollywood.
I think those
very first audiences
here in the Comedy Store,
when they saw Robin,
it was like seeing
a tornado in person.
But I think at first
they were just in awe
of that energy that he had
when he came on.
Hello, how are you,
take this off.
They haven't set yet.
Hello!
This room
right here is hallowed ground
if you're a standup.
Look, look, look!
But Robin's like…
it was like they all gravitated,
the whole back wall,
there was a who's who of comics.
They said they knew immediately,
they knew the moment he opened
his mouth and started speaking.
He wasn't just
doing funny things.
He was doing it in
a brand-new way.
Robin Williams died
on August 11, 2014,
at the age of 63.
His death saddened the world,
but his work lives on.
You're exactly like him.
Oh, now, come on, now,
man, look at that, look at that.
He looks like he does his hair
with a Cuisinart.
Seize the day.
Gather ye rosebuds while ye may.
Hello!
Aaah!
You don't know about real loss,
'cause that only occurs
when you love something
more than you love yourself.
Aah!
Aaaah!
Bully!
Got you, boy.
We made it in the World Cup.
Everybody plays it,
not like the World Series,
because the French
don't have a baseball team.
If they did,
they would only have left field,
and no one would be safe.
He wasn't safe!
What can you do, huh?
It's a life and career
worth celebrating.
Young Robin Williams
didn't have many friends,
but he did have toy soldiers
and a non-stop imagination.
All alone in the attic,
he staged unlikely scenes…
Indians fighting Nazis,
or knights with airplanes.
An only child with
largely absent parents,
no one else saw
his creative spark,
until that day in high school,
when Robin Williams
stepped onstage
for the first time.
Senior year of high school,
they had like a class revue
where they got to
make fun of the teachers,
and I could do
a pretty dead-on impression
of a couple of them,
and that was the beginning of,
"Oh, this is nice."
After high school, Williams went
to Claremont College
to study political science,
but Claremont was
an all-men's school.
It turns out
the only place the ladies were
was the theater classes,
and specifically
the improvisational
theater classes.
And it was this beginning
of getting laughs,
especially around improvising,
which I went,
"You literally can
create it there in that space?"
"Yep." "Okay,
let's do this."
Despite his skill
creating laughter,
at age 21, Robin Williams didn't
see comedy as his future.
He wanted to be an actor
and moved to New York
after winning
a special scholarship
to the prestigious
Julliard Academy.
It was Christopher Reeve
and myself were
the two students.
He was chosen because
he's stunningly handsome
and I was chosen to be
a character actor,
which is kind of,
"Little hairy boy,
you be funny."
At Julliard, Williams' mentor
was John Houseman,
who had just finished
an Oscar-winning turn in
The Paper Chase,
playing a character that wasn't
far from his real-life persona.
Now that you're on your feet,
Mr. Hart,
maybe the class will be
able to understand you.
You are on your feet?
Yes, I'm on my feet.
Loudly, Mr. Hart.
Fill this room
with your intelligence.
And we sat down with Houseman,
and I remember…
I paraphrase this now,
but he was basically saying,
"Mr. Reeve, Mr. Williams,
the theater needs you.
You should go and be soldiers
in the army of the theater.
Unless of course you can make
[bleep]-loads of cash doing films.
I'm going off to sell Volvos."
Smith Barney.
They make money
the old fashioned way.
They earn it.
He was almost like
the Wizard of Oz.
Like, "Don't look behind
that curtain, boy."
But, you know,
pretty astonishing character,
and all these people
he'd gathered together
teach at Julliard
because of him, I think,
because he was so
kind of charismatic.
After Julliard,
Robin Williams returned
to San Francisco
to find acting work,
but opportunities were limited.
He started out as an actor
and discovered
he was sort of funny
and sort of went that way.
The turning point
came when Williams
heard about a coffee house
that offered comedy training.
They had workshops
and eventually they would have,
you know, performances,
which was great
because usually
the performances followed
an evening of lesbian poetry,
so it always in
an interesting audience
and really not ready for,
"Don't do that joke.
That one may not play very well
with the ladies
in comfortable shoes."
The response to
his comedy performances
in San Francisco
encouraged Williams
to take the next step…
moving to Los Angeles
to try his luck on stage,
in clubs, and improv groups,
slowly working out the bits
that would later
make him a star.
Before I read the poetry to you,
I wish to teach you
one phrase in Russian
in case you ever go
to Soviet Union.
It's necessary
to know this phrase.
Why am I under arrest?
First of all,
I think they were shocked,
they were taken aback,
like, "What is he doing?"
And they were, like,
just, you know,
they didn't know what
to do at first, I think.
First time an audience
ever saw Robin Williams
was like the first time
an audience
heard the Beatles
or Led Zeppelin.
At comedy clubs,
audiences are
notoriously fickle,
but Williams learned
from each performance.
Then you will get
the hostile drunks,
you know, the idea of,
you know, that,
and that becomes
a whole other game of,
you know,
how much do you engage them.
The heckler would be
like an amateur
in front of a master.
There was no way to win.
Yeah, he loved it.
That was more input,
that was more stuff
to work off of.
If they're really strange,
you can bring them up the stage
and direct them in a movie,
and that's just
really what they wanted,
was to be part of the action,
so let's make 'em
part of the action,
and that can be
very dangerous, too,
'cause then they won't leave.
"I'm not leaving.
This is going really well.
What about these?"
"Put it back."
It wasn't long
before Williams realized
that his classical theater
training at Julliard
paid dividends in the world
of stand-up comedy.
I remember there was
one show we did at a club
and it was the opening night
of this club
and the mics all broke
and the soundsystem went out
and the guys went,
"What are we gonna do,
what are we gonna do,"
and, "I can talk loud,"
and that was the first time,
and then it kind of also
determined my style
of just being off-mic
and not a standing target,
working the whole audience
and using that ability
to project my voice
to kind of change
the perspective in the room,
so that was the beginning of
using literally
one of those skills.
Wandering over here,
nice to wander back…
Thank you.
Oh, we're just
going to work on this.
We're going to
tease it a little.
How about those 49ers?
Do you think they're ever
going to work again?
I don't know, let's look over…
Let's just look over here
a second.
Okay, we're going to
pull a little up here.
Hare Krishna, Hare…
sorry, right now she's going,
"I worked all day on that!"
Ooh, mmm, more smoke.
I want to die.
He would always take
a person's purse.
I remember him taking a purse
and just like literally
doing like 15 or 20 minutes
on what was in the purse.
He was ball lightning
and he was author,
director, actor,
at the speed of light.
He enjoyed the audience
almost as much
as the audience enjoyed him.
He loved being there.
When it works,
there's nothing better,
when it doesn't work,
there's nothing worse.
Hence the metaphor is
you kill or die.
There's no room to…
the metaphors are pretty brutal.
"You killed."
Or "you maimed."
You know, then when you
don't do well, "You died."
At the Comedy Store,
Williams' reputation grew
and he began to rub shoulders
with a new generation of comics.
Richard Pryor
on in the main room.
Oh, god, and then, you know,
people coming on…
Michael Richards coming onstage
with little soldiers
and giving them directions,
just bizarre stuff
going on in… it was like
a three-ring circus.
One night,
producer George Schlatter
stopped by the Comedy Store
looking for talent
to cast in a revival
of TV's Laugh-In.
I'd never seen
anything like that,
and of course there never was
anything like that.
Follow me, miss.
I'll take you to my room.
Don't be afraid,
I'm the only normal one.
He had this straw hat
and these coveralls, barefoot.
I saw your new movie,
and it inspired me
to write a song for it.
It's called "The Hormone Blues."
- Oh, it's wonderful.
- Would you like to hear it?
- Sure.
- Okay.
♪ Went to bed last night ♪
♪ with hair upon my chest ♪
♪ I woke up this morning with ♪
♪ a couple of beautiful breasts ♪
♪ You know I'm changing ♪
Thank you, ma'am.
Wow. She touched me like
she knew me, Marlene!
- Take a bath.
- Yeah.
Jimmy Stewart was awestruck.
Jimmy Stewart just babbled.
Finally, Jimmy turned around
and said, "Gloria!"
Want to grow weeds?
Yeah, big ones, tall ones,
and then sell 'em.
Who's going to eat weeds?
No, not eat 'em.
It's another thing.
I don't… I don't… Gloria!
The new Laugh-In failed,
but it helped Williams
land a role
on another variety show,
this one hosted by
the most innovative comic
of the era, Richard Pryor.
What's your problem?
Oh, Mr. Mojo,
I got a bad arm!
I can't move it!
He got a bad arm!
And he can't move it!
Aaaaah!
Let mojo heal it!
Pryor's humor
was far too unconventional
for NBC and the series
didn't last long,
but Williams and Pryor
became lifelong friends.
It's like seeing great jazz.
Nothing like a kid.
I love children,
because they talk so straight.
You know,
when you saw him kick it hard,
it would just be like
broken-field running.
And you ask them questions,
they never
answer you straight, right?
They go, "What happened?"
"When? When?
First, first thing"…
Or he'd find a character
that would just be so…
so painful,
but at the same time, so funny.
And "I didn't do it."
In the last couple of years
before he died,
I went to visit him,
and he had heavy MS,
and I did for him
an African voodoo dance
to ward off ex-wives.
And I knew that it was great
because his laugh,
he'd just go, "Aaaaah!"
I said, ".
Alimony.
Half.
Half,.
And you'd just
see him go, "Aaaah!"
But the greatest thing of all
was to get a laugh out of him
because it's like
seeing Buddha crack it up.
It was wonderful,
because you know if
you got a laugh from him…
and he would say,
"Damn you, it's funny!
Aaaah!"
After The Richard Pryor Show
ended in 1977,
Robin Williams remained
a struggling unknown,
until he auditioned
for a sitcom about 1950s
suburban teens
called Happy Days.
Whoa, whoa, whoa!
Greetings, Fonzie!
Remember me, Mork from Ork?
You once called me
"The Nutso From Outer Space."
I think I must be dreaming or
something like that, you know?
And I had this audition for
ostensibly an alien
on Happy Days,
and the reason that show
was being done… people were,
"An alien on Happy Days?"
No se ya se,
not that kind of alien.
But the idea that it was just…
that Garry Marshall's son
had seen Star Wars
and he thought,
"Can we have an alien
on Happy Days?"
And that would have
been a great…
I would have liked to have
been there when Garry went,
"I don't know.
It's the '60s.
There was no abduction…
alien abductions,
and we're definitely not doing
any rectal probes."
But the idea of an alien on
Happy Days came from that,
and then they
started auditioning
pretty much every standup comic
they could find
to come in and play this alien.
We just started
rehearsing like normal,
and then Robin Williams
opened his mind and his mouth,
and I'm telling you,
you forgot where you were.
I think I want to wake up now.
Strange custom.
Doesn't give me pleasure.
And I went in and basically
just started talking in
a weird kind of helium voice
and sat on my head
and just started off
just playing,
and then I just…
because I went,
"What have you got to lose?"
All right,
let me get this straight.
If I win, you don't take
the specimen here.
You read me, creature.
Creature?
You want to rumble?
Rumble!
♪ Da da da da da ♪
And they went, "Yes!"
And I went, "Serious?"
And so I got the gig.
I had one job
and one job only…
to keep a straight face.
Aaaah!
We must introduce
the local celebrity.
Can we get on with this now?
Whatever you said,
he absorbed it,
it washed around
in his Williamsness,
and shot back at you.
I just come in
just trying anything.
I went,
"Can I try this one?"
"What's to lose?"
"Hey."
So it's me just
playing off of them
and it turned out
to be very popular.
I mean, it was kind of weird
because people were going,
"What's this in the middle
of Happy Days?"
It did very well.
It did so well,
ABC fast-tracked a new series
for Williams' alien character
called Mork & Mindy.
And I start watching Robin,
and all of a sudden,
I realized that I am like
the luckiest girl in the world,
laughing out loud all by myself
in my agent's office.
And then, you know,
I said to my agent,
"Sign me up.
This guy is brilliant."
So, you're from outer space.
Yes. You mind if I take
a few pictures
for the folks
on the home planet?
They'd like to get
some postcards.
No.
Okay, watch the blookie.
When I met him
and I said, "Hey, Mork,"
I said, "I'm Mindy."
And he goes, he goes,
"Oh, it's very…
very nice to meet you.
I'm very excited
to be working with you."
And I said, "Oh. Me too."
And I went back.
I said, "Is he…
is he Russian?"
She goes, "He's not Russian.
He's nuts!"
The wonderful news
is she's really sweet
and really funny
in her own right,
and I could just go off the wall
and do strange things,
and because I'm an alien,
it's okay.
- How do I look?
- You look real nice,
except don't forget to
hold in your stomach.
Ooh! Well,
you dressed up for me.
Oh, I've got a big
interview today.
- How do I look?
- Oh, real nice,
but don't forget to
hold in your thighs.
For me,
it was almost an acting class,
because I've never
done improvisation,
so I'm like, "Oh, my god,
he didn't give me a line,
he didn't give me a line.
I've got to get us
out the door."
And so I started
thinking on my feet.
Before the first episode aired,
the press was dubious.
Alien shows didn't have
a stellar track record.
But once America saw
Mork & Mindy for the first time,
Robin Williams
became an sensation.
It's still in
people's consciousness
from that time,
and people, "Diddy-diddy."
"You mean 'nanu-nanu.'"
"Yeah, that's it."
But it's the thing of…
you know, it just kind of…
it struck a chord because it
was so kind of
out of left field in that way,
but it was a blast.
The first year was crazy fun.
It was just so much fun.
Aaaah!
I'm going home, mama!
Waaah!
Hey! Don't take away
my gusto!
Ah, help me, I'm melting!
The first year, basically…
they're basically just
taking things from my
standup act and putting it in.
It was basically me
learning about humans
and at the end having the thing
of talking to Orson every week.
Mork calling Orson,
come in, Orson.
This is Orson.
What's the matter with you?
Me? Nothing.
You've got
a strange look on your face.
Maybe it's love.
It was just me playing,
having a good time,
and having Pam standing there
and kind of holding the middle
of explaining things
and being patient,
and occasionally we'd have
a kind of warm and fuzzy moment
of like, "Oh, that's love.
Oh, cool, wonderful.
Nice to know that, Mindy."
Mindy,
I'd like to kiss my pal.
All right.
Whoa!
Those little moments
just worked.
I don't know, he just, um…
I don't know,
it was just a certain magic time
and we were in it together.
Rapid heart beat.
Temperature rising.
I get it.
What did you get?
I think I know what made
those car windows
steam up at the drive-in.
People remember
the silliest stuff.
You know,
"What's your favorite planet?"
"Pluto." "Why?"
"Because it's
a Mickey Mouse planet."
It's like,
"Why does that joke work?"
And just people would remember
the thing about,
"Fly, be free,"
where I'd take eggs
and throw them up
and they'd crash.
It's against intergalactic law
to eat fellow space travelers.
Fly, be free!
Well, I guess we'll have to have
a quick burial at sea, then.
I'll notify your next of kin!
Your brother bit the big one.
Williams' jokes came so fast,
it was a challenge
to keep up with him,
especially for
the network censors.
We would try different things
and it was just kind of
to see what could get
under the radar.
No, Mork, you don't understand.
I was expecting
a special letter.
Oh, let me give you one.
How about K?
Maybe an F, or a U!
Standards and Practice people
were like, "No, nope, nope.
You're not saying that."
Eventually they had to have
a censor who spoke…
I think spoke Spanish,
three or four
different languages,
because I was sneaking things in
in different languages
and they went,
"She knows what that means."
"Really? How sad."
Because I was using…
sometimes Mork
would speak Yiddish.
", Mindy."
Mork & Mindy
was performed in front of
a studio audience,
a longstanding technique
that especially benefits
comedians like Williams,
who need the feedback of
an audience reaction.
Once that audience was in,
it was a whole…
He was just like, "Bing!"
He was just, go on…
you know, he's on the set,
he's climbing
through the audience,
he's playing with the band,
he was… you know,
I mean, it was insane,
but it was so much fun.
People forget that Chaplin,
when he did a lot of his movies,
was performing
in front of people,
that they sometimes
would have…
a lot of the silent comedians
would have like…
because there was no soundtrack,
they'd have an audience so they
know where the laughs were.
Or he would take it out
as stage productions.
Like the Marx Brothers did
all of their movies
as stage productions first
so they knew where
all the laughs were.
Sometimes we'd have to film
a show without the audience
and he didn't like it,
and he felt flat.
On Thursday nights,
Mork & Mindy jumped to
the top of the ratings,
but then network executives
began to tinker with
the winning formula.
I remember this one
network executive said,
"You're the funniest man
I've seen since Jack Carter."
I went, "Thank you,
somewhat."
It was just like…
that was just a bizarre thing.
And as the show went on,
you know, we had…
you know,
the first year was good,
second year was good,
and then the network
started to…
they got kind of greedy.
We're very unhappy with
the ridiculous, the bad…
what they did to that show.
They put us on different nights,
and then in order
to jack up the ratings,
they decided to…
literally one of the episodes
was myself, Raquel Welch,
and two Playboy bunnies,
former Playboy centerfolds,
I think.
I am Captain Nirvana
of the Necroton Black Army.
Kama, Sutra.
Fall in.
Orkan, you have
exactly five seconds
to get your meaningless life
together in one bucket.
Mindy, those are Necrotons.
They're as mean
as they are ugly.
There were a lot of little kids
who went through puberty
watching that episode.
I think that…
that really changed the…
and we lost a lot of
the audience.
And then I was dressed as
a Denver Bronco cheerleader,
and at that point it was just,
you know, okay,
we're starting to go away
from the innocent Mork
into like this bizarre
transvestite comedy.
Hey, Mork!
Hey, Mork!
Woo!
For the fourth season
of Mork & Mindy,
the producers decided
to add a new character,
played by the only comedian
who could match Robin Williams'
spontaneous comic energy…
Jonathan Winters.
You don't have to leave, sir.
You can't leave the bitter
memories in your mind.
Why not leave
with something sweet?
Like, I have this
delicious dessert I made,
and you have to try it, please.
You know, incidentally,
you seem like
the only normal one here.
In many ways, Jonathan Winters
had paved the way
for Robin Williams
as television's first
improvisational genius.
It's sort of man against
the jungle, you might say.
You know, malaria, yellow fever.
Animals.
No offense, Rodney.
You see, I'll be
shoving off before long…
Look, you're into me
for 200 now.
Keep your hands out of there.
He made it possible for me
to think that
you can do anything.
He made it possible
to do voices, characters,
sound effects,
and all those different things
that just opened the world up.
He was morphing
before the technology.
So that was for me like
the beginning of like, "Wow."
Tell me, Mr. Groundhog,
do you predict six miserable,
lousy weeks of weather
ahead of us or not?
I don't know anything
about the weather, Jack.
I can tell you that
it's just a crummy hole
I live in down there.
It's rotten, it's damp,
the missus is about
the ugliest broad
I have ever seen.
I'll leave you alone.
Now, Robin Williams
said to me one time,
"Pops, you're my mentor."
And I said,
"No, don't… listen.
Don't say 'mentor.'
In Ohio they think
that's a salve.
Say 'idol.'
Everybody gets that.
I love 'idol.'"
I remember seeing him,
watching him with my father,
and my dad was kind of,
you know, very kind of
quiet like this,
and Jonathan did a thing
where he came on one time
on The Tonight Show
with Jack Paar
and he came out and said…
and Jack said,
"What are you?"
What are you?
I'm the Voice of Spring.
I bring you some little goodies
from the forest.
And I saw my Dad lose it
and I went, "Okay, this guy.
I like this guy."
Wheee!
It took me 45 minutes
to get that in there.
Oh, I'm sorry, I'm sorry.
In the forest, we don't care.
When we had Jonathan on,
it was amazing,
because he and I…
they would just do these things,
like, "Jonathan and Robin
riff here."
I was kicked out of Santa, sir.
They found me in a dress.
Doesn't make any difference.
They found you in what?
A gown.
A gown's better.
One time we did
a World War I takeoff.
They shot for like 45 minutes,
to the point where
the cameras were
running out of film.
They were like machine gunners
at Guadalcanal.
"I'm out!
Get a gunner to Camera 3!"
And were just riffing.
They're coming, father, look!
Thousands of Huns,
Germans, Bosch!
Germans and Bosch!
What's the Bosch?
- Small soup with beets.
- I suppose.
And then eventually they would
cut it down to five minutes.
Once Jonathan Winters came on,
that was chaos.
I have to say, that was tough,
and some of the shows
didn't make any sense
because the two of them…
you know, Robin was like,
"Yeah!" Everything was
a free-for-all.
Ow, ow, my hand, my hand!
I'm sorry, sorry, take it out!
I'm hurt, I'm hurt!
I know you are,
but you've killed
the old man with
four fingers in his head!
Well, it's two crazy guys,
you know,
that had just been released
from a major hospital,
and, "Ha, ha, ha,
we're on the playground now,
you'll never get us.
We can get in that Jeep
and roll away, bye-bye."
And he is on full throttle.
Robin could go off,
do some brilliant
improvisational thing,
and come back.
Jonathan would go off and you'd
never see him again.
Looks like
the bloody war's over.
- No, sir.
- What a shame.
And no action.
You know, I can't…
no, it's my medallions.
There we are.
And the people say,
"Did you get pictures of Robin?"
No.
They got blurred.
He got out,
"Did you get a picture?"
"No, I almost got
the camera out."
This is a tough guy to catch,
tough guy to catch.
I love the guy.
It's amazing stuff
that Jonathan would just go off,
"I don't know anymore, no, no,"
and he'd play
this petulant little kid like,
"No, I won't do that
anymore, Dad,"
and then he'd see
a beautiful woman and going,
"But her I understand."
"Easy."
As Mork & Mindy's
ratings declined
in the fourth season,
Robin Williams' need
for affirmation increased.
After a full day on the set,
it's wasn't unusual for him to
perform at comedy clubs
until 1:00 or 2:00
in the morning.
With comedians,
the time they're the most alive
is when they're onstage,
and then the other time
I think is really hard for them.
He was running.
I mean, Robin's life…
Robin just ran.
Ran, ran, ran, ran,
ran as fast as he could
from one gig to another,
to people's apartments,
to the Comedy Store and back.
As fame starts to diminish,
it starts to become…
you become less famous
or not as hot.
That's also another part of it,
like,
"Well, what do you mean,"
you know?
By the fourth year
of Mork & Mindy,
it was clear the series
had run its course
and would be cancelled.
That's the part of… that…
that's the other part
of the drill, of like,
"Uh-oh, it's going away."
And then you get kind of like,
"All right,
I remember you
used to do this…
there's lots more
people here."
But yeah, that's… that was
part of that time, I think.
You know, it was so huge
so quickly
and then it kind of
started to… you know,
by the fourth year, it was like,
"No, not so much, though."
Robin would come to my house.
This was after Mork & Mindy
was canceled.
All of a sudden,
the buzzer would ring.
"Dawber, it's Robin."
"Oh. Okay."
He would… he wanted to
communicate with me,
but he didn't know how.
He'd go from the couch to
the TV to the phone
to the refrigerator to the ba,
the da.
In 15 minutes, he's gone.
And if you'd try to
talk to him about stuff,
he was uncomfortable.
As Mork & Mindy
was coming to a close,
Williams was jolted by two major
life-changing experiences.
His first child was born
and his close friend
John Belushi
died from a drug overdose.
Williams was with Belushi
just hours before
Belushi passed away.
A guy who could do anything,
gone.
You think you're tough?
No.
Puss compared to him.
And that… I mean,
it got me going… two things.
It got my ass clean
at that point,
him going and my
first son being born.
I didn't want to be like, "Hey,
here's a little switch.
Daddy's going to
throw up on you," you know?
You know, you don't need drugs
when you have a kid.
You're awake, you're paranoid.
Williams quit the drug
and alcohol lifestyle,
and his career seemed
on a major uptick
as he landed coveted movie roles
like Popeye.
The critics were vicious to him
in Popeye, but, hey,
if you could find
a better Popeye,
I don't know what it is.
Popeye bombed at the box office
and Williams feared
his acting career was over.
Desperate for a creative outlet,
he returned to standup.
But you must be careful,
especially when smoking
a little marijuana.
Yes, yes.
Yes, the police,
the police have a new test.
What they do is
they pull you over,
they get out of their car,
walk toward you like this.
"Will you get out of the car?"
And you're trying to be cool,
you're trying to maintain,
going,."
"Get in the damn car!"".
Standup's hard.
I mean, going on the road
is the toughest gig of all.
But is it rewarding?
Yeah.
But is it hard work?
Oh, yes.
And as you get older,
it's like it's harder work,
you know?
I had heart surgery halfway
through the last tour.
You know, "Almost killed you,
You're back!
Hee hee, way to go!"
And they started
offering me choices
about what type of valves
I can get,
and here were
some of my choices.
Number one, a porcine valve,
which is a pig valve,
which is kind of cool because
you're already
inoculated with swine flu,
number one.
And one of the side effects
says you can find truffles,
which is kind of cool.
You have things sitting
in the back of your mind,
you're thinking, "Well, yeah,
there's ideas of…
Yeah, this might work.
Maybe, yeah, mmm…"
And then you'll…
and here's the coefficient
that makes it all work
is the audience.
You know, you haven't…
you can think about
these things alone,
and a lot of times you are,
and then you take it out
in front of people
and they go, this works
or this doesn't work,
and it's a combination of,
okay, this might be
the wrong audience
for this routine,
or this is the perfect group
to do it for.
And it's just that… you know,
it is that… you know,
if it's that moment
and it's right,
it's pretty amazing.
His very first
standup special on HBO
was a major hit,
giving Robin Williams new hope.
Well, why wouldn't Robin
come back to standup?
He had to come back to standup.
When you're the world's
greatest standup,
you come back to standup.
That's the thing that kept
my sanity alive
in the face of
Mork & Mindy disappearing,
Popeye not doing so well,
and then just going,
"Okay, that's the thing that
I still can do
that I actually
literally earn money
and also keep… you know,
keep my chops alive."
My god, Nanook of Norinne.
My god!
This is a lovely…
look at this thing.
Right now there's a whole
bunch of animals going,
"[bleep], is it cold? Jesus!"
Woo!
Robin Williams,
people say,
"We like you so much,
we're going to take
a day and a half's pay
and pay our money
to see you."
That's when you're a star.
That's when you're rolling.
Oh, I guess you couldn't
afford the bottom fur.
And I feel like
Liberace right now,
going, "Just leave me
the candelabra, damn you,
leave me the candelabra."
This is wonderful.
Robin's wearing the lovely pants
from Hefty Bag.
♪ La di di da ♪
Despite the success
of his HBO special,
Robin Williams didn't
see standup as his destiny.
He wanted to act,
and not just in comic roles.
Landing the lead in
The World According to Garp
gave him that opportunity,
and on the very first day,
director George Roy Hill
helped Williams
begin the transition.
The first day I was
working on Garp,
I started improvising,
and he went,
"Just say the lines and commit
to that and go with that."
Do you think I might be
a real writer?
I do.
Oh, I do!
Oh, ha ha.
Oh.
And you said you'd
only marry a real writer.
I did.
And I do.
I do, too.
The World According to Garp
opened doors for Robin Williams,
demonstrating his ability to
play a wide emotional range,
which he built on in
Moscow on the Hudson.
Tell me, Lev.
When you speak English,
does your mouth hurt?
My mouth is fine.
My brain's what hurts.
Oh. When I speak English,
my lips,
my tongue hurt.
One time he came
over to me and said…
Which means, "You make me feel
like a natural woman."
Made my day, I'll tell you that.
In 1987,
Williams felt safe returning to
his comedy roots,
playing a fast-talking funnyman
in Good Morning Vietnam,
a role that would earn Williams
his first
Academy Award nomination.
Goooood morning, Vietnam!
Hey, this is not a test.
This is rock 'n' roll!
For these radio station scenes,
Williams ad-libbed
hours of material.
Director Barry Levinson had
the difficult job
of picking the best bits.
What is a demilitarized zone?
Sounds like something
out of Wizard of Oz.
"Oh, no, don't go in there."
♪ Oh-we-oh, Hoh Chi Minh ♪
"Look, you've landed in Saigon.
You're among
the little people now."
♪ We represent the ARVN Army, ♪
♪ the ARVN Army ♪
"Oh, hello.
Follow the Ho Chi Minh Trail.
Follow
the Ho Chi Minh Trail."
We'd done like about
18 hours of radio stuff,
and I said to Barry Levinson,
I said,
"Do you think we have enough?"
He went, "I think so, yeah."
Because I was worried…
"Do we have to do more?"
You have to slow
the footage down to see that
it's at dolphin chatter speed.
It's data full.
It's just playing
at the speed of light.
And he's switching characters
and becoming ten,
15 people in each bit.
"What's the weather like
out there?"
"It's hot.
Damn hot, real hot.
Hottest things is my shorts.
I can cook things in it.
Little crotch pot cooking."
"Well, can you tell me
what it feels like?"
"Fool, it's hot!
I told you again!
Were you born on the sun?
It's damn hot."
I did a character
for dinner one night,
a dinner with him that was
kind of an Asian…
a gay Asian fashion consultant.
"First of all,
before you go to combat,
you want to have colors
that don't clash."
So he said, "Put that on…
do that on the radio."
I went, "Okay."
"You know, this whole
camouflage thing for me
doesn't work very well."
"Why is that?"
"Because you go in the jungle,
I can't see you!
You know, it's like wearing
stripes and plaid.
For me, I want you to do
something different.
You know, you go in the jungle,
make a statement.
If you're going to fight,
clash!"
And a lot of the stuff
was just based on,
you know, characters around
or just things that…
he said, "Try that guy."
It's almost like
you would see him,
"Scanning, scanning, scanning,"
and then he'd see it
and then he'd start to
enjoy it himself
and it was going to be good.
You could really see that in
Good Morning, Vietnam.
In Awakenings,
director Penny Marshall
helped Robin Williams through
his most challenging role yet…
playing opposite Robert De Niro.
And so I had De Niro.
Now I had to get someone to
counter that energy of Bobby's.
Penny Marshall
persuaded Williams
to take the role,
but he was worried
Robert De Niro would
overshadow his character.
Robin was afraid Bobby would…
I said, "That's my job,
is to make it so
you're both equal."
And he trusted me
and Bob trusted me.
It's late.
Everyone's asleep.
Oh.
I'm not asleep.
No…
You're awake.
I'd go like that to him.
That was my symbol to Robin.
To Robin, yeah.
More… balls.
Stronger. Yeah.
What does that mean?
Yeah, thank you.
More balls.
Mas cojones.
Thank you.
I guess because it was the idea
because sometimes it could be
so kind of intellectual when
you're playing a character.
At one point, Bob De Niro was so
intensely into the experience
of being suffering
from encephalitis lethargica
that Oliver wanted to
hook him up to an EEG to see if
he duplicated the brain waves.
That's beyond method acting.
I mean,
at that point you're going,
"Come back, come back."
L.
Leonard.
L.
To the surprise of many,
Robin Williams did not receive
an Academy Award nomination
for Awakenings.
Robin was… got gypped because
he didn't get nominated
or anything.
I did have a non-nominees party,
because me, Robin… you know,
the movie, Bobby, the writers,
everyone got nominated.
But not us,
so we had a non-nominees party.
Robin Williams'
dry spell didn't last long.
In the next few years,
he was nominated for both
The Fisher King
and Dead Poets Society.
Why do I stand up here?
- Anybody.
- To feel taller.
No.
Thank you for playing,
Mr. Dalton.
I stand upon my desk
to remind myself
that we must constantly
look at things
in a different way.
He was brilliant.
That's him!
That's Robin.
That's the Robin I knew.
O Captain, my Captain.
Sit down, Mr. Anderson.
Do you hear me?
Sit down.
Sit down!
This is your final warning,
Anderson.
How dare you?
Do you hear me?
O Captain, my Captain.
Mr. Overstreet,
I warned you.
Sit down.
Sit down!
Sit down, all of you!
I want you seated.
Sit down.
Leave, Mr. Keating.
I wrote him a love letter after
I saw Dead Poets Society,
because he was so real
and he was so who he is, was.
Despite his success
in dramatic films,
Robin Williams also
continued in comic roles,
including a turn as a woman
in Mrs. Doubtfire.
Hello.
Mrs. Hillard,
I presume?
Yes, I'm Miranda Hillard.
Euphegenia Doubtfire.
Yes. Won't you
please come in?
Thank you, dear.
Using the kind of
the mask skills
in Mrs. Doubtfire of,
you know,
it's kind of like
interior puppeteering.
Both personalities
were in the other room
talking to this other person.
"Mrs. Sellner here to see you."
"Oh, is she here?"
"Yes, dear, she is."
"Oh, Mrs. Sellner!
I just got out of the shower.
I think you'll be
fairly pleased with me.
I've been through some
really interesting changes."
And I thought, "Oh, my god,
that is like flawless.
He's zooming back
and forth seamlessly.
I don't know if
I could do that."
He's just changing, dear.
"Yes, I want to keep you abreast
of some of the changes
in my career."
Splendid, wonderful,
magnificent.
In Aladdin, Robin Williams
broke new ground again,
becoming the first major star
to voice an animated character.
Whooooa, whoa,
does it feel good
to be out of there!
I tell you, nice to be back,
ladies and gentlemen.
Hi, where are you from?
What's your name?
Uh, uh, Aladdin.
Aladdin! Hello, Aladdin,
nice to have you on the show.
Can we call you Al?
Or maybe just Din?
Or how about Laddie?
Sounds like, "Here, boy.
Come on, Laddie!"
Cone on, kid, see?
Nearly all Williams'
lines were ad-libbed.
The producers wisely let him
say whatever he liked.
Yo, rug man, haven't seen you
in a few millennia.
Give me some tassel.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Say. You're a lot smaller
than my last master.
Either that or
I'm getting bigger.
Look at me from the side.
Do I look different to you?
Wait, wait a minute.
In 1998,
Robin Williams finally won
an Academy Award,
for his role in
Good Will Hunting.
You don't know about real loss,
because that only occurs
when you love something
more than you love yourself.
And don't you ever dare
to love anybody that much.
Williams' director for
Good Will Hunting
was Gus Van Sant.
The greatest
directors are the ones
that are almost like road cones,
that they set the idea that
if you bump over it, going,
"That's too much."
With Gus Van Sant on
Good Will Hunting,
I found myself by the end,
he said, "Just… you know,
just have the conversation,
just talk."
So you're not "acting" per se
but eventually the things
start to happen,
I realized, "How did that go?"
He went, "It was amazing because
you're just talking about…
You're talking ostensibly and it
becomes more and more intimate."
I look at you,
I don't see an intelligent,
confident man.
I see a cocky,
scared [bleep]-less kid.
But you're a genius, Will.
No one denies that.
No one could possibly understand
the depths of you.
I'd finish a scene going,
"Was that okay?
Because I was just
talking to him."
He went, "That's wonderful.
That's what it should be."
And not to say that sometimes
underacting can be
just as dangerous as overacting,
you know, where people just go,
"What?"
"I'm saying that I love you."
"What?"
"I love you."
"What?"
"I love you."
"Oh, cool, you love me."
The linear
and impressionistic mix
makes a very
muddled composition.
It's also a Winslow Homer ripoff
except you've got whitey
rowing about there.
Well, it's art, Monet.
It wasn't very good.
That's not really what
concerns me, though.
- What concerns you?
- Just the coloring.
You know what
the real bitch of it is?
It's paint by number.
To listen to someone and to
be there listening with intent
and to be there focused
and with them,
present with them,
is just as powerful
and in some cases
and some characters
even more so.
The scariest guy in a bar
is the quiet guy.
And the guy… that's where
that line came from
in Good Will Hunting
where they said…
oh, you know, when he starts
mouthing off about my wife,
and I said,
"I will end you."
That's it, isn't it?
You married the wrong woman.
What happened?
What, she leave you?
Was she, you know,
banging some other guy?
If you ever disrespect
my wife again,
I will end you.
That came from somebody
that Matt I think saw in a bar,
this little guy,
and this big guy
kept pushing him,
you know, "You little [bleep],
I'll kick your ass."
And this guy just…
this little guy
just walked up to him and said,
"I will end you."
And the big guy walked away.
Got that, chief?
Time's up.
Yeah.
You were never thinking about
Robin Williams the standup.
You were thinking
about Robin Williams the man.
By his early 50s,
Robin Williams had found success
in almost every venue…
standup, television,
animation, movies…
but he never stopped looking
for more challenges.
Willing to take chances,
and you've got to in order
to keep exploring.
You have to do that in order to
push the parameters,
to see…
to see what's out there.
Some people think that
this is a job for a clerk.
They actually believe
that any idiot that
attends a two-day seminar
can master the art of making
beautiful prints
in less than an hour.
One Hour Photo, which is…
I never had people
more creeped out by a movie
in their life.
I had a kid come up to me
and go,
"That thing scared the…
out of me, Mr. Wilson."
Get on the bed.
Get on the [bleep] bed!
Look, look, I've got plenty
of cash in my pants.
Shut up.
Close the drapes.
Close them!
Who told you to do that?
I closed the drapes.
Did I tell you to wrap
a towel around yourself?
By all accounts,
Williams' real-life personality
was the opposite of his
One Hour Photo character.
He was a caring person with
a desire to help others,
a man who went to extraordinary
efforts to do the right thing.
He always had time for you,
to talk to you,
to catch up on you.
Every comic you talk to
had his own personal
relationship with him
in a sense that he knew you,
he knew about your kid,
your old lady,
how are things going.
He'd ask you those questions,
and you'd say, "Really?"
As much as he had and as much
as he was willing to give
and as much as he
made people happy,
he had to deal with an equal
amount that was difficult,
and I think what
he did so gallantly
and unfortunately
unsuccessfully in the end
is he was able to
keep that darkness at bay
as long as he could.
Starting in 1986,
Robin Williams dedicated himself
to Comic Relief,
raising millions
for people in need.
There really was a need to kind
of address homelessness
and the lack of care,
and it was the idea
of literally
getting health care.
And now tonight they're here
for the reunion
we've all been hoping for.
The masters of merriment,
well, amyl nitrate,
My heart's kicking faster.
Those princes of polka,
Yosh and Stan,
the Shmenge Brothers!
And the idea of, you know,
gathering together
and getting across
ostensibly a tough,
tough message, but with comedy
that you could juxtapose
amazing comics.
♪ He's so excited ♪
- How have you been?
- Good.
I'm so really happy.
And we cross.
♪ Ooh ooh ooh, ow! ♪
- ♪ Ooh ooh ooh ♪
- Make a wish!
In his 50s and 60s,
Williams fell
back into depression
and relapsed into alcoholism,
but he fought back
over and over,
got treatment,
and rebuilt his life.
He was determined
to use his gifts
to make a difference
in the world.
You deserve the best.
You're incredible.
Thank you so much.
Merry Christmas, happy new year.
No entertainer made more trips
to war-torn Afghanistan
and Iraq than Robin Williams.
But I come here…
for you, because I believe
you're amazing.
He felt a special
kinship to soldiers
who found themselves
far from home.
Uh-oh!
I'm not gonna forget that.
I've never had
an entire audience just go,
"Forget you!"
You have no idea!
I was also wondering what's
coming from that way.
When you say, "Who's the
heavily-armed Amish guy?"
And they go,
"He's Special Forces."
"Oh, cool."
If you could have seen him with
those troops over there,
I mean, he…
you could feel his love
and respect and admiration for
those young men and women.
He literally had to be
dragged away several times
because he was
posing for pictures
with whoever wanted a picture.
He did whatever he could
for those guys.
He was amazing.
My favorite thing,
I did a show once in Kabul
and there's a guy in the front
that has a thing that says…
He's wearing a uniform
and he's dark-haired
and he's got a thing
that says Jose,
so I keep going,
"Jose, que paso?"
And he just looks at me
like this,
and eventually he's laughing,
I do some other stuff,
and afterwards,
I asked this guy,
Special Forces guy,
"Who's the guy in front, Jose?
'Cause it seems like
he didn't have a good time."
He said, "Oh, no,
he loves you, man."
I went, "Really?
Where's he from?"
He said, "He's an Afghan.
He's an assassin.
He works with us."
And I was like, "Cool,
I'm glad he likes me."
And you can see on their faces
that they're just excited,
but him.
He looks excited.
He looks excited to be there.
Just for him to step down
and walk into
a bunch of soldiers
having a cigarette
and dreaming about home,
they'd turn around and they'd,
"Wow!" They'd scream like
a 16 year old girl
at an NSYNC concert.
You know, this howl,
you know, and it was…
it was… it made you forget
you were in a war, you know?
Robin was just there for that.
I mean, Robin ran to the rescue.
That's the kind of person
he was.
Whoa! Whoa!
What's up?
Hi. All of a sudden,
I've got balloons.
I'm lap dancing.
Let's do this.
Gooood evening, Bagram!
The first time in Afghanistan
where you're like in…
because it was just after…
it was right after
they went in to Afghanistan
where you're performing
in little tiny spaces because
it couldn't be outdoors
because you're a target,
and there was…
It was pretty wild to be there
and just see these faces,
and you'd look out and you'd go,
they're the same age as my son.
I wish you from my heart
a Merry Christmas,
Happy Hanukah, Happy Kwanzaa,
to my brothers.
You know who you are.
And I shall return, as they say.
He wanted to do whatever
he could for those guys
no matter what.
I mean, if they'd have said,
"Here, take this weapon
and go out here
and stand a post,"
he'd have done it!
You come back humbled,
you know, in a good way.
As a boy, Robin Williams
played with toy soldiers
all by himself.
Toward the end of his life,
he was still
playing with soldiers,
but he wasn't alone anymore.
He was beloved by
men and women in uniform
and by the whole world.
That little boy in the attic
came out of his shell
and brought joy to millions
for 63 years.
That he was willing to say,
"I'm still that little boy."
I think he'll be remembered
as a gentle soul
who traveled at
the speed of light.
Why?
Why?
Why?
We'll never see his like again.
I think everybody realizes this.
This is once-in-a-lifetime
person,
not just the talent
but the person that he was.
Don't go.
We need you.
He's missed.
He's missed.
It's like somebody
chopped your leg off.
You'll never walk the same.
I hope he rests in peace.
If only he understood
what happened to the world
when he decided to leave.
The whole world was in mourning.