#264 Tearing it up with Lenny Ripps

CTS Announcer 0:01

If you're a pop culture junkie, who loves TV, film, music, comedy and other really important stuff, then you've come to the right place. Get ready and settle in for classic conversation, the best pop culture interviews in the world. God's right, we circled the globe so you don't have to. If you're ready to be the king of the water cooler, then you're ready for classic conversations with your host, Jeff Dwoskin.

Jeff Dwoskin 0:28

All right, Angie, thank you so much for that amazing introduction. You get the show going each and every week and this week was no exception. Welcome, everybody to Episode 264 of classic conversations. As always, I am your host, Jeff Dwoskin. Great to have you back for what's sure to be that classic episode of them all with legendary writer Lenny reps. That's right. Lenny ribs from Bosom Buddies Full House and G and of course a little thing called the Star Wars Holiday Special man. He's got a million stories in there coming up in just a few seconds. And in these few seconds. Jeff Kraus Hal sparks both interviews dropped last week. Do not miss those amazing conversations. They are classic but right now Lenny ribs is origin story into comedy is a legendary working with the late great Joan Rivers linear stories working with Joan Rodney Dangerfield George Burns. This episode is chock full of stories. Let's get to it. All right, now. Enjoy. All right, everyone. I'm excited to introduce you to my next guest, producer Emmy nominated writer. You've loved his work on Van Dyken company, the Star Wars Holiday Special Bosom Buddies, Frankenweenie Full House and a million more. We're gonna touch on as many as we can squeeze and welcome to the show. Lenny reps. Hey, how you doing? I'm great. How are you? I am very good. Lenny, such an amazing resume. When did you know you were funny? Like what led you down? The

Lenny Ripps 2:12

you know, I it's funny. I was thinking about that. And I think it was when I was a stuttering fat kid. And I needed to protect myself. I really think that was the first time I realized that humor can be of some value that the kids wouldn't bully me as much. Maybe if I was funny.

Jeff Dwoskin 2:29

So a defense mechanism. I think a lot of people use humor as a defense mechanism. Yeah,

Lenny Ripps 2:33

yeah, as a matter of fact, I was thinking about it. I wrote a joke the other day. The joke was when the nearsighted Cyclops got his first Monaco, all the bullies at school called him to ice. What I was thinking about is where that joke came

Jeff Dwoskin 2:48

from somehow, something from your childhood. Yeah, I

Lenny Ripps 2:52

mean, a very obscure, roundabout way. There was something in that joke that reflected back to me,

Jeff Dwoskin 3:00

it's an interesting thing about humor that some of the funniest people suffered or sad things, traumas or something in their lives that they had to deal with. And it manifested with humor, taking that in and then converting it and helping the world laugh, make everyone else feel better.

Lenny Ripps 3:17

Yeah, the way I got started really was I went to college with a degree in journalism, and got out during a recession. So I moved back to Baltimore, my home, and I started taking tests for the civil service jobs. And I was number two in the city in the test on social worker, and I had never taken one social work course. So I got the job. And while I was doing it, to mentally survive, I started working for newspapers, and I wrote restaurant reviews and at a boxing column, and someone from the state of Maryland contacted me because they were doing bicycle safety films. They thought it was funny, I started writing him and a woman who was in charge of the project was the most aggressive woman I've ever met, which from my background says a lot. She went to see Joan Rivers and literally walked backstage and said, I have a friend who's very funny. And Joan says, Great, I'd love to read some of his jokes. But this woman called me that night and said, Joan Rivers, if you go back, say to I like to read your jokes, and I had never written your joke before. It was funny, but not she was so fat that where he was so ugly that I sat down for the hell of it. I wrote 10 jokes run backstage. And she did one that night in the theater. And it was one of the first 10 jokes I had ever in my life. That must have felt good. It was extraordinary. You know, I mean, I didn't expect it. And then every week for six months, I sent her 50 jokes, and she would buy one or two, but in not buying them I learned a lot. She started talking about syntax and vocabulary and gee, this is funny, but not the way I would say it. Or this is not the order of words that I would use, or I use bigger words or smaller words. I began to learn not just about funny but what structure meant. And then six months later, she was doing an interview for TV Guide about comedy writers, and she mentioned me was very sweet. I called her and I said, What do you think? She said, Well, I think you're really good, you should come out here. So the next day went to my supervisor and said, I'm giving you two weeks notice in two weeks, you will notice I've been gone for 10 days. And I packed my car and at $500 and drove out to LA and drunk was on the road for three months. So I started hanging out at the clubs and selling jokes for two or $3 at rate on the back of napkins to comics. And then finally she got back. And she started getting me interviews. But that's really how I got started.

Jeff Dwoskin 5:30

What did you do to sort of help yourself learn Joan Rivers voice during that time, just buy the albums sit and watch her live?

Lenny Ripps 5:40

You know what, you didn't have to buy albums, because she was on television all the time. And whenever she appeared anywhere, I would get a free ticket if I started to go and listen to a different way, not just their way That was funny. But what's funny about her, how could I take my ideas and put them into her mouth? So I started writing stand up and I wrote for her and Rodney Dangerfield, and David Steinberg and Bette Midler, and it says, That was wonderful training for writing sitcom and movies. If it is script. Two jokes sound the same. If two characters gonna be the same joke. It's a bad joke, right? So that's what I kind of began to realize that I could write a Rodney joke. After I got to know Rodney,

Jeff Dwoskin 6:21

could you write a joke? Or have a promise and go Alright, this is how I'd write it for Rodney but this is how I do it for John or John would never do this. Because Rodney was more of a character.

Lenny Ripps 6:32

Yeah, I would do it that way. Not as an exercise. But when I got an assignment from Rodney and then heard him say it I began to hear that. But like I say, I worked out and listen which which is important for and you dialogue in a new script.

Jeff Dwoskin 6:44

Did they like give you like specific things? I would never say this. I would never do that or leave it.

Lenny Ripps 6:50

Yeah. Yeah. Not so much Rodney. He would just say no rips, no rips. Joan was one of the smartest people I've ever met. So she could explain it. She could diagram a joke. And that was extraordinarily helpful.

Jeff Dwoskin 7:03

Yeah, she had a real understanding of humor. My parents introduced me to Joan Rivers when I was very young, because it was my mom's favorite comedian. Yeah, I have Joan Rivers, cassettes in my house. I mean, I can't listen to them because I don't have a cassette player. But I do have because that's from you know, way back. Yeah, I love Joan Rivers or something about her. And I tell you I was listening to I was interviewing Melissa Rivers. So I started listening to some Joan Rivers stuff again. And it was just as funny as someone had said, This person releases today. And I was listening to it. It just it felt like that solid. Her use of language was great. Yeah. And timeless, so long. They weren't for both. You really got the picture early on in the joke, and he was such that she would just say others but Taylor and big wits are laughing because they know she would have an Elizabeth Taylor joke. How did you meet Rodney Dangerfield?

Lenny Ripps 7:56

I meet Randy, his manager who passed away was an acquaintance of mine. She hung out at the clubs, and that's how we connected and then we just hit it off. I mean, we weren't best friends, but I would hang out at his house and I went to Vegas with him once. And he was Rodney Dangerfield,

Jeff Dwoskin 8:13

so you hung out with him in the robe. He had the robe, all that kind of good stuff. Yeah.

Lenny Ripps 8:17

Oh, yeah. He was wearing a robe. One night, we were in Las Vegas. And he was a degenerate gambler. And the casinos log having stars at the tables, and he was not a winner. So he would sign markers like autographs. And he said to me, Hey, reps, why don't you play craps? I need you losing 1000s of dollars. I tried to play craps, they throw some dice, lose some money and say hey, rips Why don't you play craps? Randy, I knew I'd be throwing my money away and he said, Come on reps and he gave me $100 chip. And I put it on one number and he threw it and I crapped out and he says rips he had another bleak reps. I mean, he was Rodney Dangerfield.

Jeff Dwoskin 8:55

That's so funny. Yeah, he was I Rodney Dangerfield again was one of my favorites. I have him on cassette as well. I love listening to Rodney Dangerfield. These guys are classics. So it's exciting to hear. You got to write for them. I mean,

Lenny Ripps 9:08

watching him when Carson is a real lesson person feeds him so perfectly. Right. And he doesn't get in the way.

Jeff Dwoskin 9:16

Both him and Joan had a mastery, like none other.

Lenny Ripps 9:20

Yeah. So it was a thrill to work for them. You know, I mean, I also wrote for Baldwin, and a puppeteer called Wayland. And mme, I don't know if you remember them.

Jeff Dwoskin 9:32

Oh, I do. Yeah, for sure. Yeah, the older older woman puppet

Lenny Ripps 9:36

Yeah. Great. He had created wave and created a real character. I mean, a character that was so precise that I was at the house when a wardrobe guy came to fit, Madam with clothes. And Madam started talking to this guy, and he totally believed that it was her. It was very, you started talking to madam I I hadn't experienced once years ago I was writing for the Mac Davis show. I don't know if anybody remembers.

Jeff Dwoskin 10:06

I don't remember the show. But I remember Mac Davis, it was very interesting

Lenny Ripps 10:09

to see how do you write jokes for him? How do you write jokes? There's nobody who can't tell jokes.

Jeff Dwoskin 10:14

What's the secret to that?

Lenny Ripps 10:15

We're really short. Really good. And you move on, not stories, you know, simple, simple sentences, because he was very funny and people loved him and, and a guy that handsome self deprecating stuff always works.

Jeff Dwoskin 10:28

How long were you with the mack Davis show?

Lenny Ripps 10:31

I was on the show for a year. But what's great about it was I met Danny Simon, who you know, it was, you know, Simon's brother. Sure. You know, I mean, the world's biggest burden. His mother would introduce him as this is my son Neil's brother, Danny. And Danny was a great comedy writer. If you read any of the Woody Allen books he gives Danny an incredible amount of credit.

Jeff Dwoskin 10:53

That's so funny. What other stars Did you work with on Mack Davis show did you write sketches for

Lenny Ripps 10:59

it was amazing for for Kate Smith, and Edgar Bergen. I actually spent an afternoon with Edgar Bergen in his office where he told me stories about WC Fields. Oh, really? You know, I'm sure people remember Bergen was a ventriloquist, one radio, which is probably not the most difficult thing you could do. On right. Yeah. Yeah. But when we were doing it, yeah, it was on strike. So they had old guys like me doing the cameras in the sound during rehearsal. When Edgar burgers or Charlie McCarthy, you couldn't hear Charlie McCarthy only had good Brigham. And they checked their microphones. These old timers were so convinced of that character that they turned the mic every time Charlie spoke to Charlie,

Jeff Dwoskin 11:42

that's awesome. I guess when you're that good. And people just start to really kind of buy into the act, I guess you can get away with with that.

Lenny Ripps 11:50

And the power of radio, just the power to create visual worlds in sound credible? Oh, and George Burns, I wrote a sketch. It was not the world. That was obvious. But Matt Davis had a song called Rhinestone Cowboy, right. So I wrote a sketch where George Burns came out with a wrench and a foot and said, I'm the gallstone cowboy. And then he did five minutes whether George says so burns, called me to his office to go over the material. And he was a brilliant writer, I did not know that. He said, This joke is in the wrong place. And you set this approach, and indeed a blonde with big depth, but you brought her into early, you got to bring the blonde or big tits in late, it was amazing to get that kind of lesson from somebody.

Jeff Dwoskin 12:34

Wow, you weren't a lot of masters of the craft. And I learned to keep my mouth shut. That's the key. Let them talk, right. And I'm just giving and they wanted to because

Lenny Ripps 12:43

no one asked him questions that they were considered relics. And I began to see Wait a minute beef people know what they're doing. They're smart, and creative and, and clever, and have spent 60 years doing one character. So they really knew that character, George Burns, who knew who George Burns was,

Jeff Dwoskin 13:00

Wow, I must have been amazing. Do you have photos of all these people? Or?

Lenny Ripps 13:04

No, I have a few I'm working with defend, like, I remember the defense like showing saying that will be something wonderful to do as a kid. And now I'm driving him home because he forgot his keys.

Jeff Dwoskin 13:16

How was that car ride?

Lenny Ripps 13:17

Well, it's not a secret that he was an alcoholic. So he talked a lot about that, because he found out I was a social worker. That was really interesting. He talked about his life and his obsessions. And I talked about my observation with people I worked with, and it was wonderful. And then I don't remember if there was a laugh, but in many ways, just have a real conversation with a real man. It's a wonderful gift.

Jeff Dwoskin 13:38

No, I think that's even more special than just you know what I joke he might have thrown off to anybody who he would be sitting with. And I

Lenny Ripps 13:46

was went to the theater and Rosemarie was sitting right in front of me. I said, Excuse me, you know, I am I'm coming later. But I'm doing what I'm doing because of you. I just want to thank you for doing that show, to inspire this fat little kid that there is that kind of life. And she was very touched and very sweet.

Jeff Dwoskin 14:03

That's really cool. I think it's important to be able to if you can tell people who made a difference in your life that they did. I don't think anyone ever doesn't want to hear that. Sorry to interrupt, but I thought you might want to run off real quick and tell someone that made a difference in your life that they made a difference. I do want to say to you, I appreciate your support of the sponsors. Because when you support the sponsors, you're supporting us here classic conversations. And that's how we keep the lights on. And now back to my conversation with Lenny rips of Dick Van Dyke Show or the Van Dyck and company show later one. So did you work with Bob Einstein at all? You

Lenny Ripps 14:42

know, he was sure I worked with Bob Einstein on Van Dyken company when the red fox show when bizarre. I mean, I do lots of work

Jeff Dwoskin 14:51

about oh, you wrote on bizarre also.

Lenny Ripps 14:53

Yeah. It was a Canadian show. It wasn't supposed to.

Jeff Dwoskin 14:57

Okay, I didn't see that one on your list. So that I love bizarre that was like on what was that on like HBO or Showtime? Yeah.

Lenny Ripps 15:04

And beider is truly one of the great underrated comics.

Jeff Dwoskin 15:08

He's amazing. And Bob Einstein recipes

Lenny Ripps 15:12

really, really funny. So I really love Bob. He was outrageous and smart. And a good producer,

Jeff Dwoskin 15:18

Super Dave Osborne is one of the greatest characters of all time.

Lenny Ripps 15:21

Yep. Yep. It's hysterical. Hysterical.

Jeff Dwoskin 15:24

So what about like, Carl Reiner? Andy Kaufman.

Lenny Ripps 15:27

Well, they were on the show, right?

Jeff Dwoskin 15:30

I just don't know what you do. Did you cross paths with them at all? Or? Oh, sure.

Lenny Ripps 15:33

I mean, I remember we was the perfect afternoon I wrote a sketch with a guy who wrote within that Prof. You bet. They had gotten and police academy lots of things. So we would spend lots of time working with Bob. we'd write a sketch and they need give us notes and everything. He was terrific. And we got to work for red fox.

Jeff Dwoskin 15:53

Yeah. How is it working for red fox? He's wild. Right?

Lenny Ripps 15:56

I love him twice.

Jeff Dwoskin 15:57

I'll tell you a red fox story. You later worked with him in the royal family. Right? Yeah, right

Lenny Ripps 16:02

where he died. Right. But I had nothing to do with it.

Jeff Dwoskin 16:06

We are clearing Lenny reps. And do

Lenny Ripps 16:09

I promise you he didn't die laughing so I'm innocent. But we're doing is variety show. And it's at CBS where cow Burnett did her show right next to the farmers market in LA. And our show is not doing great. Their ratings aren't wonderful. I don't think that we ever found our stride but we were trying so they decided and there is always the producers who are above you that the reason America the audience did not connect with him because they needed to get to know him better. So he should do what Cabernets does, and answer questions from the audience. So they bring from farmers market, the widest people in America, me the people who made Mike Pence look like Mike Tyson. These were the whitest people in the entire world. In the audience. At the same time, red had been caught snorting the white line down Hollywood Boulevard. I mean, he was totally into drugs. So red comes out all of these white people in the audience at Red Fox, do you have any questions? Some person from Iowa in the back says Yes, Mr. Fox, I just started. It started. Every question is more and more answers more and more vulgar. And the audience now becomes overly violent. They are shocked from this way in the back. Here's one black guy, one black guy in the audience. He raises his hand redseason excitedly and he says Yes, brother, and he says red. I got your stuff. It was the drug dealer who got into the wrong line. He got into the audience line. It was great. And red when he was there was one of the funniest men of the world. He had a bodyguard, he got so paranoid at a buddy gardening Berry, who he said killed more people in Vietnam than anybody in history. Whether or not Barry was immense. He would stand next to the cameras or red would feel safe. Red got more paranoid and, and he said he's got to be closer to me. So we put burying sketches now you'd have to get wardrobe for every three weeks he came up to me and he says, brother, you're one of the writers. Yes, sir. Just a couple of lines. It was great

Jeff Dwoskin 18:15

lines of dialogue or lines of code. Yeah. That's so funny. And then I mean, if we're just staying with the timeline, I think soon after, right up next, as the infamous Star Wars Holiday Special.

Lenny Ripps 18:29

It always comes to that I'm sure that we got when I get arrested. The policeman with me about the Star Wars out of the special

Jeff Dwoskin 18:36

talked me through this talk me through what was going through everyone's head.

Lenny Ripps 18:41

You know, every guy who put a ribbon on the Titanic did the best he could. But the funny thing still sank. You know, that's the way I look at it. I didn't I were hired because the first half hour was all Wookies grunting,

Jeff Dwoskin 18:53

right. They're trying. They're trying to get home for life day. Yeah. Or the whole lucky family. Yeah, I've seen it.

Lenny Ripps 19:01

I had written I'd written a lot when Matt Davis for shields. And you know, I don't know if you remember them. But they were minds were huge. And they had their own series. So producers knew that we could write silence stuff. We both love to Arlen Hardy and Buster Keaton. We were students of that kind of writing, you know, had conveyed not just humor, but hey, so slow these things silently. So they hired us to do that. I worked for David George Lucas gave us all of these notes. He had a wonderful director from Canada, a fabulous guy had done music videos. He had not done this kind of production. Not his fault, but he wasn't the right guy for the right job. Although he was a very good guy. When they got rid of him. Lucas walked out. Okay, now they have to show with Patna and they did not wouldn't do our script. They brought in our brunette writers and variety writers. I mean really wonderful people. Bruce Vilanch Wragge Waring and and Mitzi wells. I mean all Emmy winning people, but not the right people for I show they in turn, brought in art Carney, and lots of variety people. So it just didn't match didn't make any sense and got worse and worse and worse. But Pat and I were already gone. And I didn't know what had happened to it. So I had a party and all my friends over and I was catered. After five minutes, I turned it off and said, Let's, let's eat, I put at the foot of Lucas for walking away.

Jeff Dwoskin 20:25

And because later he tried at least the rumor as he tried to bury it.

Lenny Ripps 20:29

Now it's 100%. True. You only buy it on YouTube or underground.

Jeff Dwoskin 20:34

Yeah, there's clips on YouTube. You can find it. It's worth it just to watch like the Arthur saying in the bar. Yeah. And Diane Carroll,

Lenny Ripps 20:43

which was almost put out there in California. Very close. Yeah.

Jeff Dwoskin 20:47

Harvey Corman's in this and then Mark Hamill had messed up his face at this time, right. He had,

Lenny Ripps 20:53

you had been in a car accident, a horrible car accident. But the show got all of the original cast. The reason Lucas did it was after the huge success of the first one, there was a couple year wait for the second one he needed something he fought in between to keep it alive. notion of a holiday special with the characters is not a bad idea. Not unpaid. And everybody wanted to do it. Obviously bigger star wars with the biggest movie ever made at the time. And Pat and I are saying this is our annuity. It's a bit of a run every year, our kids will go to college if they're smart enough. And it ran once. When I get interviews, I get phone calls. I'm in a new documentary, where I one of the talking heads.

Jeff Dwoskin 21:33

Yeah, I was just gonna ask you about that as a disturbance in the force that yeah, I'm all

Lenny Ripps 21:37

over it. You know, people want to see something horrible as much as they want to see something wonderful. If it's truly horrible.

Jeff Dwoskin 21:44

The interesting thing about it is that it takes everything, all these things that we love. And somehow, it just is just or what the Boba Fett cartoons pretty good. I mean, I think the Mandalorian owes a lot to that now.

Lenny Ripps 22:00

Yeah. Oh, sure. And the animation company in Canada that the the animated series was wonderful,

Jeff Dwoskin 22:05

right. I think they just came out with a Lego holiday special Star Wars special. Try try and move past it. Yeah.

Lenny Ripps 22:13

See, I were in an office writing a script. So that was a great experience. I

Jeff Dwoskin 22:17

got to hang with George Lucas for a day. So that's cool. All right. It

Lenny Ripps 22:19

was a pretty interesting, very interesting guy, the most focused guy I've ever worked with. He believed this story was part of him that he was telling the story to us. Not necessarily creating it,

Jeff Dwoskin 22:31

right? Because Didn't he have hopes that this would become like, like a holiday? Like,

Lenny Ripps 22:35

oh, yeah, I always thought that this, that guests would be Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer or a Charlie Brown or something, you know, that every year, we're gonna watch this man. But wonderful to be associated with it.

Jeff Dwoskin 22:50

It's one of those things where it's like, it's a guilty pleasure. And I think people I remember I talked to Bruce Vilanch about it for a little bit. And what did he say? I don't even remember. I don't remember specifically, I just remember like it came up, you know, because it was on his, his resume as well. But I just, I think it's one of those things that you love. And you just like to hear the myth, you know, the urban legends around it, and I totally

Lenny Ripps 23:15

embrace it. It was everybody doing the best job they could do. I mean, that's the other thing about TV and movies, that even the shitty ones are done by people who really want them to be good, right? I have worked just as hard when horrible shows that they have been good shows.

Jeff Dwoskin 23:30

That's true. And the same amount of effort goes in. Alright, let's talk about something else. Angie,

Lenny Ripps 23:35

and she with Donna Pascoe, she had just done Saturday Night Fever, and it was my first full time sitcom job time, and I haven't I go down to the set. I go to a set. And there are people there reading my script, I did a script that Danny DeVito was a guest star. And that's awesome. To me. This was extraordinary stuff. Danny DeVito. It's a matter of fact, I ran into him 20 years later, and I said, You don't know me. But you did my script. The first script I ever sold. You did it. And it's a treasure to me. And he was very gracious and shook my hand. And it was fun. Donna Pesco was really, really talented. I don't know if anybody remembers the show. But it was very pleasant. It was one for two years. It's one

Jeff Dwoskin 24:17

of the thing I kind of remember it because I remember her. And I remember Robert Hayes, he probably sticks in my mind because then he did airplane airplane.

Lenny Ripps 24:24

And he's was it's a charming, lovely guy. There was no drama when this set.

Jeff Dwoskin 24:30

This is a Gary Marshall show. And I was I was just interviewing someone else who wrote about this show, and said that originally this was going to be a spin off to Laverne and Shirley. And it was like some character that they worked with a Jewish character allowed Jewish character at the brewery and they were going to spin it off and it was gonna be her and then the notes came back, change your personality. Make her Italian not Jewish. Baba, baba, baba, bah. And then they finally i ended up with Donna Pascoe as the lead and they changed. It was contemporary, they made it about her, and the original kind of impetus of how it started going into the world shifted.

Lenny Ripps 25:12

I did it the second season. It was very cute. I enjoyed it. It was the first job where I worked late into the night to do rewrites and all of that. So it was a real education, how you got those experiences of actually being one to show 80 hours a week,

Jeff Dwoskin 25:27

how was your experience with Bosom Buddies?

Lenny Ripps 25:30

It was my favorite show, but not my favorite experience. The person who read it, Chris Thompson was one of the geniuses, but a guy who had demons. So you would work twice as many hours if you needed to. However, Tom Hanks, you knew was great. You never know if they're going to be huge, hugely successful. I didn't know that he was great. And he Peter sqare, had an improvisational quality to their acting, which made it very fresh and very young. And we did shows like tattoos, if needed was a show written by pretty crazy for our young guys, who wrote about what we knew. It was a really good match of the staff and actors. We were truly all on the same page.

Jeff Dwoskin 26:09

You have any Tom Hanks or Peter Scolari, you worked with Peter Scolari on good time girls as well. Good time growth.

Lenny Ripps 26:15

I don't think anybody ever saw good time growth. But it was about Washington, boarding house during World War Two. Annie Potts, Adrian Smith said, there were lots of good people in Georgia ankle. Yeah, she was adorable and sweet. before its time. I don't know if there was ever a time. I don't think America was interested in World War Two at the time. And also it was kind of frivolous and the wars going on. And somehow that was hard. Got it. Oh, here's a movie interesting. Tom Hanks wanted to do for bosom buddies for CBS this year. Really? Go? Yeah, David Chambers was one of the writers on blouse. I mean, it wasn't buddies. and I are dear friends. And he is good friends with Tom. And Tom wanted us to produce and write four episodes. And the show was going to be he and Peter had daughters who got married. And it was about that evolution.

Jeff Dwoskin 27:09

So is this before Peter passed away? Or? Well, yeah.

Lenny Ripps 27:13

And then the son of a bitch died. And at the end, there was no project. It was very exciting for a month to think we'd be doing with some buddies again,

Jeff Dwoskin 27:21

that would have been really fun. Because I it's one of those shows you wonder, how would they do it? Now it's a

Lenny Ripps 27:27

it's funny, I was talking to some guys about it was saying today, it would be a socially conscious show about what women have to go through. And then you would have made them chauvinists to had to do this. And so it'd be about them learning what it's like to be a woman. That's what the show be about now, I think. Right? Then the title, it didn't even occur to us six press those issues. And we should have and we were wrong not to but to times didn't call for it. We never thought about it. Now we absolutely that. That would be the focus of the show,

Jeff Dwoskin 27:59

when the show was on came out wasn't the joke. Just they couldn't, they needed a place to stay. But it was a place only for women. So they just kept Some like

Lenny Ripps 28:06

it hot. They needed a place to stay. They didn't have any money, they would just swim. And that's it. The Prime Minister can't lose. I don't care what DeSantis says you can't lose on drag. It always works. It's always funny, this show would have had a very different focus. It would have been a socially conscious show, I think. Right? Right. But it makes me think I guess we could have been condemned for not doing that. Now people look back and say you guys were just sexist.

Jeff Dwoskin 28:32

I think it's so over the top silly that be hard to like pin it against the wall as

Lenny Ripps 28:38

the times were so different. It's not that we chose not to. We didn't live in a word. We've thought about that. And that's horrible. I'm not saying that was good. But it's the truth.

Jeff Dwoskin 28:48

Well, you learn right. I mean, you do. Yeah. That's we evolved and we learn Holland Taylor. I mean, I think she's been in everything. She is great. I mean, yeah, she

Lenny Ripps 28:59

was the adult in the room. Really, really extraordinary talented. I saw her a couple years ago at her one woman show about and Richardson and she was off the charts. Brilliant.

Jeff Dwoskin 29:09

And she's amazing. She's in everything. I don't I can't think she's like Betty White. She was old then. But she still seems the same age now. Yeah. She's men. Um, I was like this time capsule. She's just timeless and amazing. And the only adult in the room. Everyone else just messing around was a crazy set losing bodies.

Lenny Ripps 29:27

It was crazy. But professional Does that makes sense? was not some people were playing. But we also knew everybody knew that there was an actual job here. The soul to the craziness was focused toward making the show better, but in between things and takes time and people come out and juggle and play. You could see that these guys were funny.

Jeff Dwoskin 29:46

Yeah, I learned later Peter was like a master juggler. He was extraordinary. And a wonderful guy must have been a super, super fun set.

Lenny Ripps 29:55

It was a fun set. It was a tough show to work on. We would be different 10 total three or four Were in the morning, two or three days a week, at least. And it didn't have to be that way your audience really should care about is the results and I think the results are something to be proud of.

Jeff Dwoskin 30:09

Oh, yeah, I mean, show that only really was on for like, what a couple of seasons 37 episodes to season some of these shows, they, you know, they stay in pop culture, you know, they're just they're always there. They're just at the top of pop culture no matter what. That's definitely one of them.

Lenny Ripps 30:24

Yeah, well, thank you because there's something so involving with comics.

Jeff Dwoskin 30:28

That makes it amazing that here's Scolari is amazing and that too. Yes. I mean, they all are all the women are to Donna Dixon, everyone, everyone to them, Wendy Joe Sperber. May she rest in peace and peace, Tom Hopkins, you know, they're all of them are super awesome.

Lenny Ripps 30:43

And you could see that they were having fun. Absolutely. And that doesn't always happen. We made it a place for them to play to prepare for the show. So they would improvise and do lots of stuff in rehearsals. And we would never stop that. And if we liked it, we would add it. So that was communication to it was never saying you're going to do this, you know, we trusted him.

Jeff Dwoskin 31:03

That sounds like a good but tough like is that environment, though? And the output is amazing. I'm really proud of it. And you just was you should it say I love it's one of the it's one of my favorite kind of shows that I remember watching all the time. Sorry to interrupt, had to take a quick break. If you know the theme taboos and buddies axe me or tweet me whatever. Hashtag Jeff Dwoskin show and let me know what that theme song was. It's one of my favorite songs. Alright, let's take a quick break. And we're back with Lenny reps. And we're going deep into Frankenweenie. That's right. He wrote the original short with Tim Burton. And we're back. So I So you mentioned working with George Lucas for a day. So another really cool director that you've worked with? Is Tim Burton.

Lenny Ripps 31:49

Yeah, very cool. Tim, I had to deal at Disney and overall view at Disney. My secretary was friendly with the Secretary of us producer and Tim had to deal with Disney and they were looking for somebody to write Frankenweenie. And since I had to deal with Disney didn't have to pay me anymore. I had one or two lunches with him and we hit it off. He was a real, it's it's trite to say but he was a real artist. I have Xeroxes. People don't remember that. Of all the original characters. Everything was drawn. Before he did the film. I knew what was going to look like. I've seen

Jeff Dwoskin 32:23

stories of Nightmare Before Christmas. And like how people think he directed that when he didn't really he didn't direct that movie. But he did create the visual for it. So Frankenweenie later became a movie. But first stop was it was just a short, right? And this is about a kid who kind of makes his dog into a Frankenstein brings him Yeah,

Lenny Ripps 32:44

well, Disney gave him a million dollars to make a shirt. Who would ever do that? A black and white shirt. And I'm really proud of it. It's very good. And it shows where Tim Burton will be later

Jeff Dwoskin 32:55

you had this had Shelley Duvall on it. And Danielle, yeah.

Lenny Ripps 32:58

Show me development, Daniel Stern, where the deletes.

Jeff Dwoskin 33:02

That's so cool. All right. So then while skipping ahead, I know in time, just so we could just talk about Frankenweenie. So then that was, what year was that? It was like 84. So that was early 80s. And 2012. It became a full feature.

Lenny Ripps 33:17

Yeah. And I had nothing to do with that. Except I assume, Oh,

Jeff Dwoskin 33:21

look at this. It just got interesting. All right.

Lenny Ripps 33:25

So I probably shouldn't tell this story, but I don't care. Disney did Frankenweenie based on my characters, a year before I called the Writers Guild, and I say, Listen, I want you to know this is coming up. So I think I was in, they owed me like they would have owed me $17,000 Because there was a summon characters, which would have been a huge money to fall into my lap. Disney didn't want to pay it. And Disney refused to pay it because they said this is true. We don't have a contract for animation. The Writers Guild has no animation contract. So we don't have to pay you because we don't have that contract. So I do a little research and find out the guy who wrote that second Frankenweenie John August, that paid for the Writers Guild that they did figure it out with their Writers Guild in the payment of his animated show. So I go back to Disney and they say, well, we're not going to pay you and the Writers Guild now will represent me because they want to prove a point. I caught a couple of showbusiness attorneys and they didn't want to mess around with what with which would not have been very much money. What Disney keeps refusing to pay me $17,000. So I called the Writers Guild two days before it opens and I said let's I said write up an injunction on what to say if you don't pay me, we're gonna go to court and pull it out of every theater in America, because litigation is bending. So instead of the 17,000, they had to pay me 10 times, which I gladly took, but if they paid me the 17,006 months before, I would have been pleased out and then we found out my name belongs in a certain position. The attorney says we're not going to put it there. Well, I got an early screening. It was already there. The attorneys didn't even know that ain't even seen the movie.

Jeff Dwoskin 35:01

Wow. And seems like 17,000 would be like a rounding error for Disney like to just say I hear. I mean, somebody had to.

Lenny Ripps 35:10

I'm sure the bagel budget was more than that. And I gotta say, I would have been thrilled man. I would have been thrilled to have that money.

Jeff Dwoskin 35:18

Well, looks like it worked out. Did you ever go see the movie?

Lenny Ripps 35:21

Oh, sure. Okay, it's entertaining. It's this same spirit. Something characters. I mean, August is a fine writer.

Jeff Dwoskin 35:28

Tim Burton wasn't like gimme gimme, Lani, rips IMDB. You're listed as a writer. But my

Lenny Ripps 35:34

name is I think it's characters created by all right. I never spoke to Kim. About Emma. We weren't. We were not friends. And we weren't enemies.

Jeff Dwoskin 35:43

Got it. So full house. You were with full house forever?

Lenny Ripps 35:47

Yes, I do apologize. No.

Jeff Dwoskin 35:50

I didn't watch full house only because I think the age I was and maybe I was it. Yeah. My wife loved blouse. And she was a full on devote tie. It's amazing.

Lenny Ripps 36:01

My wife gets us best reservations in restaurants and hotels, because the full house, it's still very effective.

Jeff Dwoskin 36:08

To this day. He just named Yeah, yeah.

Lenny Ripps 36:10

Now you have to look at the age of the person. You're trying to get something from date. Oh, they need to be older and older as the years go by.

Jeff Dwoskin 36:18

That must have been a fun set. I mean, I Bob Saget. Dave Calais, John Stamos.

Lenny Ripps 36:22

It was a really fun set. What I can say about the show is that we were really attentive to the needs of the kids. So these are three guys who weren't vulgar in front of kids. I mean, can you imagine Sagat not being vulgar in front of anybody. It was a very happy set. And we were very, I gotta say this, we were very strict about all the rules for kids. We never worked in for a minute, longer or harder. I mean, I think they all remembered as a good experience.

Jeff Dwoskin 36:48

Well, yeah, they all came back for Fuller House. And they all seemed any interview I ever saw that cast, it seemed that they still have a huge bond and consider family, maybe not twins, but they seem to distance themselves a little bit, but they won't. They may have I think the most money of anyone actually right now I'm

Lenny Ripps 37:06

sure your father was an investment banker, and a very smart man. And he knew what to do with their money. He didn't do it. When that show was over. He started producing G rated VHS movies that people bought. People were hungry for that stuff. He was very, very smart.

Jeff Dwoskin 37:21

Yeah, they started in a whole series of things. Yeah. And they're very successful. Any stories that pop out once one story or so that pops out from Full House,

Lenny Ripps 37:32

The Beach Boys rolling and I get them I got to meet Brian Wilson. Oh, and that's pretty awesome. Because John Stamos was the occasional drummer for for the Beach Boys. So, you know, this is my favorite Full House story. John Stamos came to Baltimore where my folks were, and he said What are their names? And he called them and he went out to dinner with my parents.

Jeff Dwoskin 37:51

Oh my God, I didn't get the greatest night. It's so nice. That's my favorite Full House story. That's a great story. What a match. Oh, wow. That's yeah, cool.

Lenny Ripps 37:59

These were wonderful guys. Now, the idea that three men can live in San Francisco without being gay is peculiar in the same house.

Jeff Dwoskin 38:06

We're not here to judge Lani.

Lenny Ripps 38:08

Yes, we are. No, but it was very sweet.

Jeff Dwoskin 38:12

Alright, so around this time, also give or take. You're working with red fox again on the royal family. The show created by Eddie Murphy, I believe it was great by

Lenny Ripps 38:21

Eddie Murphy. He was working with a guy named Rob games good writer. The show was having problems. And they were like 17 writers. They keep hiring people. So then they hired my partner and I had to produce it. But these 17 people had been there for a month we walk in red dyes, and they say here which relate to show. Many of these people were justifiably resentful. They had been there. They had been through the trenches.

Jeff Dwoskin 38:43

Did you come on before red fox passed away or two weeks before he died? Okay, so you came on board, red fox passes away. And they say here would you like to show because transitioning a show after a main character passes away, especially red fox isn't the easiest thing. Right? It was impossible.

Lenny Ripps 39:00

So the decision was made, and we were part of it. But not only my decision not to go with a guy. So we went with Jackie instead, she was the best prepared funniest person of almost anybody I've ever worked with. Jack A is hilarious. Hilarious. On day one of every reading. She'd nailed every script that today, but she nailed every joke. You would never take a joke away from her. But she made it work.

Jeff Dwoskin 39:26

Must have been a pleasure writing for her. She just hit over on

Lenny Ripps 39:29

eBay. We're all homeruns I think problem was that it was the red fox or was that red fox at the end of the day, knowing that people were interested in got it. Working with her was a real pleasure. That's really clear. And then I began to rewrite movies which movies I did. Casper the Flintstones Are we there yet? No drugs, all kinds of stuff.

Jeff Dwoskin 39:50

You did the Flintstones with John Goodman, the original Flintstones. Yeah, I love that movie.

Lenny Ripps 39:55

Thank you. I did too. I wrote the beginning joke in the film. As the cameras coming through bedrock, there's the same bedrock first thing fire. What was great was you go out to the set, and there was no CGI. They built bedrock. That's it, man. It's so cool. Yeah. And we CGI, I guess you wouldn't be able to tell. But this was all real and practical. There's something about practical, you can tell. I think so. But I work for a guy named Brian Levant, who was the director of these films and a dear friend of mine for years, I keep doing movies for him. I do tables and rewrites. He's one of my best friends. Then we did Gasper. He didn't direct it, but he was there to supervise. And Spielberg was doing an interview for the New Yorker. And he came in for two days to watch the table with the reporter was gonna be game for him. And at one point, I punched up a joke. And everybody laughed, and I said, See, Steven, if you did Schindler's List this way, it would have been a lot funnier. So I'm thrilled he laughs It's quoted in the New Yorker. But this is what guide those to you great joke written by one of the older writers, that was also wrote sitcoms in Germany. And in I did go through girls in Greece. And that's,

Jeff Dwoskin 41:09

like adapting scripts or you start from scratch.

Lenny Ripps 41:13

No, well, Greek television, owing the scripts, Disney sold them Greek TV comes for an hour, so I came in to help make them an hour. How do you expand the scripts without seeming like fluff? Like in the first episode of the first season, there was a gateway to dental

Jeff Dwoskin 41:27

right? I remember that. Yeah,

Lenny Ripps 41:29

I brought him back. I created new family members, and was so iconic, that it was easy. The Betty White character was a woman from a small Greek island, everything worked the same character, same attitude. And these apparently were considered for the greatest Greek comedians, I assume that's true. They all looked right for the type was really fun. That sounds really fun. And when I was doing this shows in Germany, they flew me over and I met the German writers, one of whom was named safety writer. And I said, you know, if you hadn't killed 6 million of my people, you wouldn't have had to go to America to hire Jewish comedy, right? And they laughed at that, because they were all art age or my age, and they weren't around

Jeff Dwoskin 42:10

like at Lenny crashing all the Holocaust jokes.

Lenny Ripps 42:13

They got to, because Don't you think in Auschwitz, they were making jokes about

Jeff Dwoskin 42:19

Jewish people together, and they're not making jokes. Yeah, you got to survive, right, man, thanks for sharing all these stories with me. I really appreciate it. I don't know if there was funny as you would know, I just like good stories. I don't, you know, they don't have to be whether they're funny, dramatic, whatever. As long as they're interesting. I got a call from the White House ones who called you from the White Witch president. I

Lenny Ripps 42:43

had a friend who was one Clintons bust during the elections, and the correspondents dinner was coming up. So I got a cough to write jokes for President Clinton.

Jeff Dwoskin 42:55

That's awesome.

Lenny Ripps 42:56

I got a call the second year and my wife said, ask for a hat. But he did send me a thank you note when the White House stationary.

Jeff Dwoskin 43:06

That's really cool. Do you remember any of the jokes? No.

Lenny Ripps 43:09

They were jokes about muskie or something? I have no idea.

Jeff Dwoskin 43:14

Do you hang out online at all? Lenny?

Lenny Ripps 43:16

No, I write jokes on Facebook.

Jeff Dwoskin 43:19

Okay. People want to hang out with you. They can follow you on Facebook. Yep.

Lenny Ripps 43:24

All right. That's awesome. This has been the best life anybody could have.

Jeff Dwoskin 43:28

I'm glad you've had an amazing life and and enjoyed every second of it. You've created a lot of amazing things. So thank you for that. I've enjoyed many, many, many of them. Well, thank

Lenny Ripps 43:38

you. You know, I don't care how sophisticated you think you are. When you see your name with television or movie screen. You get giddy?

Jeff Dwoskin 43:45

I don't think that would ever get old Lenny. I'm sure my wife would hate me at one point going hang on, hang on. Hang on. There it is. There it is.

Lenny Ripps 43:54

Depends on the size of the house that your daughter dying on and I think

Jeff Dwoskin 44:00

Lenny, you're awesome. I appreciate you for hanging out with me and sharing all these great stories.

Lenny Ripps 44:05

Thanks, Jeff had a good time.

Jeff Dwoskin 44:08

Now say like you mean,

Lenny Ripps 44:11

I met an act of a writer. No, it was I talked about one of my favorite subjects. So thank you very much.

Jeff Dwoskin 44:19

You're welcome. Thank you. It was great. I loved it. Okay, man. Take it easy. All right, everyone, the legendary Eleni reps, Full House booze and buddies Frankenweenie and G Star Wars Holiday Special Matt Davis. I mean, how many stories gonna jam into one episode? Am I right? Am I right? All right. Well, with the interview over a can only mean one thing. I know the episode is coming to an end episode. 264 can't believe it either. So thanks once again to my amazing guests, Lenny ribs. And of course a huge thank you to all of you for coming back week after week. It means the world to me, and I'll see you next time.

CTS Announcer 45:01

Thanks so much for listening to this episode of Classic conversations. If you liked what you heard, don't be shy and give us a follow on your favorite podcast app. But also, why not go ahead and tell all your friends about the show? You strike us as the kind of person that people listen to. Thanks in advance for spreading the word and we'll catch you next time on classic conversations.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai