#286 Writing His Way to the Top: Eddie Feldmann’s Emmy-Winning Career

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Jeff Dwoskin 0:29

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 286 of classic conversations. As always, I am your host Jeff Dwoskin. Great to have you back for what's sure to be a late night spectacular conversation with none other than comedian comedy writer showrunner Eddie Feldmann is here. That's right five time Emmy Award winner. We're going deep tons of stories coming up in just a few seconds. And in these few seconds so I'll Rubik he was here last week. Do not miss that conversation and star of Unforgiven True Romance warehouse. 13 so many great stories. Do not miss it but do not miss this one. Last week we talked a little deli, a corned beef conversation. We're talking deli this week too with Eddie Feldmann. You guys have been writing in more deli I'm bringing you more deli pretty soon this will be classic deli conversations are just testing the waters. I'm just kidding. But we haven't talked daily and both these episodes anyway. We're also talking stories behind the Chevy Chase show You Don't Know Jack, but Paul Rubin's was sharing our love of Paul Rubens This was recorded before he passed away. Law and order. Dennis Miller live so much right now. Enjoy. All right, everybody. I'm excited to introduce you to my next guest, comedian, comedy writer, executive producer, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the show. Eddie Feldmann.

Eddie Feldmann 2:04

Hello,

Jeff Dwoskin 2:04

how are you sir?

Eddie Feldmann 2:05

I'm good. Oh, good. No complaints or a lot of complaints but it doesn't do any good. So I say no complaints. This

Jeff Dwoskin 2:12

is a no complaint zone and he will not be taking complaints. You've done a lot. And I want to talk about how you worked with someone who I at one point in my my life loved a lot, Dennis Miller, and I know you've worked with a very times. Yeah, I'd like I'd love to hear a little bit about that. And you've won many Emmys. excited to hear about that. But in your bio, it does say that you can make a great deli sandwich and I would did want to start there in terms of what is your favorite deli sandwich? Both What is your favorite sandwich and which one can you make best is really when I get to the root of four we kick it you know, I feel like we need to get that out of the way.

Eddie Feldmann 2:49

Yeah, I'll take I'm happy to talk about that stuff. We lived above my parents deli that was named Eddie's Deli in Saugerties, New York. So that's where I grew up and started working in the store since I was about 10 maybe eight or so all the way through and the our specialties were homemade salads, sub quite popular with well before subway ever came around. So I would say on that note, the one that I think I made one the best and then people always would come in for it with my father would make homemade roast beef, special rolls, very simple. Lettuce, sliced tomatoes on a slicer not hand slice so they're thin, and then go back east and Hellman's mayonnaise, best foods if you're out west of the Mississippi. So that was a big thing. However, I would say over the years of seeing other people sandwiches. So I'm in Santa Monica right now. And I would say Bay City's well known for the godmother, their Italian is probably one of the best go to sandwiches out there. My

Jeff Dwoskin 3:55

favorite deli sandwich is it'd be rye bread bleen corned beef, chopped liver, Russian dressing and pieces Swiss cheese. That's the alternative. This is not something I could eat a lot because it's it's that's that's that's going to take you down for the rest of the day.

Eddie Feldmann 4:13

You know, I was living in Manhattan and you'd go to some of the big valley of the stage or some of those places. They're no they're like, it's a sandwich for four people. I mean, that was a part of it. But yeah, we just didn't lean towards that much meat that you know, because that was a kind of a spectacle. So as we're the daily sort of come in, get yourselves fresh stuff. Go home.

Jeff Dwoskin 4:36

So as we were talking just before the show, he said something that blew my mind was which is your name is Edie Feldman but you're not Jewish even though your family owned a delicatessen and you're from New York and you're into comedy. It's like this is a conundrum for me. I just My mind was blown. Like you're like You're like a you have the by every every bullet of someone who's Jewish right there. Boom.

Eddie Feldmann 4:59

Well, and you know Well, here's here's the thing is like a lot of my friends who I've probably known for 3040 years, they'll think I'm Jewish and like, what am I gonna say? No, I think the reality is my mother was Catholic. My father was agnostic maybe down the road there. His thoughts on, you know, religion was and God was, he believed in God, but he didn't think you had to pay a middleman to talk to him. So I would go to Catholic school come home, and then he would go, Hey, none of that was true. That was coming up like that. As

Jeff Dwoskin 5:29

you were talking about the sandwiches once you mentioned mayo, that that was the kind of a tip off and maybe maybe, weren't you it? Oh,

Eddie Feldmann 5:35

yeah. Well, and that when the I mean, yes, yeah. Well, for again, but again, the golden rule of you would never have male and pastrami, I could be Cambodian. And that I know that rule. Right, make my living in the bond knee area. And never put mayonnaise and strong or corned beef. All

Jeff Dwoskin 5:57

right. So you grew up as a Gentile deli owner? So you grew up in New York? Where did you go from making sandwiches to comedy? How did you make that jump? Well,

Eddie Feldmann 6:09

my first career, I have a degree in criminal justice. So and I went from having that, before any comedy I used to like to write as a kid, I would always write you know, people would say it's funny. I've memorized comedy albums, and kind of spit them back. But after a short lived a couple of years in social work, realizing that I don't know if I can do this, the rest of my life I got tucked into trying stand up with some friends when I was visiting them and Virginia Beach, and I did like an open mic in Norfolk, Virginia, while I was down there, did okay. talk my way in unemployment at social work. So I was collecting money. And then I used that to go to take the bus or train to New York City and start auditioning there. And then at the same time, I got into this comedy circuit all through the South, oddly enough, and started working in the clubs there. And that kind of gave me a lot of stage time before I went back up to New York. So worth actually working with delinquent kids was a good sort of precursor for working in stand

Jeff Dwoskin 7:13

up. And then with the Criminal Justice background, they probably helped with some of the lawn order scripts that you wrote.

Eddie Feldmann 7:21

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So again, I was out in the field, I would work. I was a work with these delinquent kids who were taken out of jails and Massachusetts, put into foster homes. So I was kind of their caseworker. So I kind of and again, I having a degree, and I don't have a degree in comedy, I've grant criminal justice. So and I was a huge fan of law and order. I watch it all the time, to the point where my wife goes on again, and like, yeah. And I ran into the executive producers of that show one time at a cocktail party for the WGA and mentioned them like, Hey, we're big fans of your show. And then I said, I go, Hey, I had a couple ideas. Can I pitch them to you? And they're like, yeah, come on in and tell us what you have and pitch them this one idea. They liked it. And they go, yeah, why don't you write it up? I go, Okay, that was one of those things. It was as simple as that, you know, thank God for low alcohol, because it helped get me writing and lawn owner. So that's how I that's how it came to be. And then I worked very much freelancing on my time off from Dennis Miller live, because it wasn't a it was only six to seven months a year. It gave me an interesting transition into the drama world.

Jeff Dwoskin 8:29

Who were some of the comedians of the album's that you listened to and memorized? Well,

Eddie Feldmann 8:34

I think, definitely George Carlin, which wasn't even an album was, I remember I had it on cassette. So I remember I had memorize that. And then years, it's funny, because then years later, I kind of I was, met him at the Emmy Awards, and was talking it was like, kind of an out of body experience. Like I remember listening my room to cassette and then I had won an award that year. And sitting there with, you know, with Carlin talking about stand up. And I remember always remember because I brought it up about stand up and he looked at me and he said, he goes yeah, stand up. He goes, here he goes, just tough job, but I liked the hour. So it definitely him. And then of course the other one I've memorized and that my friends remember was, you know, Bill Cosby? Of course, not knowing what Bill Cosby was all about, then I know a clue it you know at 10 or 11. In fact, when I performed in front of one of my friends where I grew up, I had this my first show, they were all disappointed because they thought I was just gonna go up there and do a Bill Cosby album, or like, what about where's the Cosby stuff? My idea is to write your own material because they remembered when we were growing up what I was doing

Jeff Dwoskin 9:46

we all grew up on Cosby yeah if you if you take away our knowledge of right now for a second, but Bill Cosby himself, chutney chocolate cake routine. I mean those Yeah, okay. One of them find me growing up on that was on cable. Every five minutes you were watching the special with him just sitting there and you're mesmerized by it. It's, it's sad where it all ended up. Yeah,

Eddie Feldmann 10:12

but yeah, but that was a great I mean you by watching those guys I mean listening to them. You know Alan Charmin was another one that my son that not on our air is probably five or six when that came again, that was kind of the musical comedy world that ended that time. That was about it for standing. There wasn't a lot out there. Other than that, you might see a little bit, you know, here or there. I mean, there was no real comedy clubs, people were performing in hotels in the Catskills. But other than that, there wasn't a lot out there for you to see. We're just I was just talking today about somebody about Flip Wilson, you know, and when people even know who flipped Wilson is today, or what was his, what was his act like outside of television, I said, I don't know, I forget, I have to go back and see some of the forerunners of that. I

Jeff Dwoskin 10:58

have a whole cassette collection and those listening who might be younger that you're just gonna have to Google what a cassette is. And as older folks that used to walk around with Walkman and music on cassettes, it didn't come in from the, from the internet. But I have, I had Joan Rivers Rodney Dangerfield, I, you know, Bill Cosby, also, you know, it's I've got all a pile of those things just sitting around. So you made you made the scene in New York, doing comedy, when did you kind of sort of transition into writing?

Eddie Feldmann 11:31

What happened was making my foot away into the New York. I mean, I grew up two hours north of New York City, but the idea of somehow going to New York City and living there is really foreign to anybody who doesn't, who doesn't live in New York City. I mean, it was the place that we went to see plays in sporting events. And then we took the bus that took the bus home, the idea of living in New York and going there and trying to make a living like that stuff. I had no clue how to do that. So you know, I ended up staying with some relatives auditioning at clubs. I had that experience in the south of working quite a bit in these comedy clubs. So I had an act. And then I also met a lot of New York comics, who kind of helped me when I get up there and introduced me around and helped me get into some of the clubs. And then right around that same time, there was the kind of comedy boom that was happening. And so you could really make a decent living working just around New York City. And then I got it, you know, somewhat traveling to Vegas and stuff. But also I got into college circuit. So that was a I was able to make make a living and not have a day job or anything pretty quickly because it just happened when that boom was going on.

Jeff Dwoskin 12:42

How did you come to work with Dennis Miller so many times because your first big role was with was with Dennis matter now your first writing job, but like your first like series? Yeah. Right. And then you worked with him three times, the original Dennis Miller Show in the early 90s, Dennis Miller Live, which you mentioned, and then The Dennis Miller Show, in the mid 2000s. Did you know him prior to this, did you well with him, the

Eddie Feldmann 13:08

first time I met him was a catch a rising star, which was kind of the showcase Comedy Club in New York City, that everybody you know, went to, you know, there was the improv catch rising star in the comic strip are really the three biggest ones. And you go in and if you weren't working, you go hang at the bar, and one night was a guy there. And we're talking a little bit and he asked if I was a comedian. And I said, Yes. And he's like, he goes, Well, I'm, hey, I'm auditioning for Letterman tonight, to come in and watch my set. You know, I'd like to see what you think and tell me how I went. I'm like, No, okay. And so I went in either this amazing, six minute TV Ready Set that killed, and then he got left. And he's like, What do you think I'm like, Well, I think you've got the show. And if you don't, there's something wrong. So he got he, he got the Letterman show that night. And then just because of Congress, we didn't see him for you know, either a couple of years until after it was on Saturday Night Live. And actually, you know, I remember that day, that night, that dish, and though what happened was, somehow I got teamed up with him. He was doing some colleges. And this guy I knew said, Hey, would you want to open for dentists? And, and I'm like, Yeah, sure this, I'd like to do that. And I started working a couple of colleges. We really hit it off and brands and he at one time worked at a deli. So we compare deli stories and we actually took a walk to go get a sub, we were in upstate New York and kind of bonded, so I worked with him again. And then we were watching TV or some sort of thing. And I made some joke about what was on TV, and he liked the joke and said, Hey, I'm doing Letterman. Next week. Could I use that joke? I'm like, Yeah, I'm not doing Letterman. So go ahead. So he does Letterman that Joe kills. Letterman keeps repeating the punch line, Dennis called me and said, hey, you know, that was great. Let him up. And I was like, Oh, great. And then he said, he said that I you know I'm doing this Tom Lee On Saturday live, I'm doing this nightly talk show. And I have my writers, but I'll pay you if you want to write stuff. Stay in New York, and I was pretty busy doing stand up. So the idea of, you know, just writing in the morning and send stuff in and get paid, like, Yeah, I'll do that. So I did that for probably two weeks. And all of a sudden, I was like, in Buffalo, and I got to like the front desk person. Let me go. There's a Dennis Miller on the phone for you. And I'm like, what? And he's like, hey, yeah, one of the writers is moving on, you know, we need somebody would you come out? And I'm like, Yeah, sure. And he's like, I go, when he goes, well, like, just start Monday. I was like, oh, tonight, Saturday, I'm in Buffalo. So literally drove down to New York, back home in New York City on a Sunday, and flew out, you know, I think Sunday night, got there, stayed in the friend's couch. And that was my transition to writing, you know, in Hollywood getting inviting there. We did that show for six months, it got cancelled. But you know, he liked what I was doing. And then I became the head writer for the HBO show when it started and eventually executive producer. So yeah, we had a friendly, have a good business relationship. That's how that kind of started but really all comes out of standup. It's

Jeff Dwoskin 16:11

an interesting example of taking a job and not thinking it's too small to take, and that anything can lead into something bigger, because you could have easily said, you know, I'm busy, I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna write you jokes. And then, you know, if you felt like you weren't really part of it, or something like that. It's a great story. A lot of people I talk to you have things in their background where like, they did something and it led to something else that they would never have guessed that it led to Yeah. Sorry to interrupt, had to take a quick break. I do want to thank everyone for their support of the sponsors. When you support the sponsors. You're supporting us here at Classic conversations. And that's how we keep the lights on. And now back to my conversation with Eddie Feldman. We're diving into some Dennis Miller. You mentioned The Dennis Miller live and that you were executive producer, you were showrunner. But that was that was a big deal, though. Right? Because this is where you start winning all your Emmys. Yeah, yeah, it was a huge deal. Because this was resin. This This was the first time primetime cable show wins. Best show. Right? So that was a big deal.

Eddie Feldmann 17:15

Yeah, it was. I mean, the show came about really, because in doing his five nights a week show, which, by the way, that was the time when Johnny Carson was leaving, so Carson's leaving, and everyone's like, Who's the next Johnny Carson. So they give Dennis a show on Tribune that originally was going to go to Gary Shandling. But it's Dan Shandling passed on it, but they had this opportunity. So they gave it to Dennis Miller, you know, because he was, you know, doing Weekend Update and big and popular. So, but the secret is that, you know, John, if Johnny Carson's ketchup, good on everything, you know, you can have it every night. Dennis Miller is Tabasco, you only want it let you know, it's very different. He's not the email. He's from Pittsburgh, he's not Carson, the Nebraska guy who can make everyone feel at home. It has humans very different. And Dennis does not like that daily. It's a hard job five days a week is a lot to it. And so he really didn't take to that when that show got canceled. And by the way, in my little thing, I get hired the week before Chevy Chase starts. So if that's not in the bio, because they needed somebody, they needed writers and I was like, Well, I'm starting this HBO show, I can only do 13 weeks, and that's fine. We need somebody, it only lasted six weeks. So it wasn't a problem. But really, you know, the HBO show came about to say, hey, you know, let's take the best of what we did all week and focus it around Dennis, because that half hour cable thing didn't exist because HBO didn't exist. It's really time. It's like Carson was on for seven and a half hours at least five nights a week. It's advertiser base. Well, this was HBO, which was subscription base. So they were like, well, maybe people will tune in if it's a really special half hour. And so that's how we thought of it. You know, the writers would write you know, monologue jokes, like we were doing a monologue every night, four or five nights a week, and we'd call all those together to the best 10 Use Dennis his rants, which he had just kind of started in his stand up crafted in a way that we hadn't seen before really to that, you know, where you take a subject and really explore it, then the guest was get I remember having arguments even with HBO because the guests were not coming on to promote anything. They're come on to talk about something that we're passionate about. So yes, we'd mentioned like, oh, they have a movie, obviously, coming out. But it was more about hey, we from the rant over here, and it wasn't always celebrity guests. It was more politicians and other people, public figures and then the pictures because he did that on Saturday live, where every day we would look at 30 Pictures black and white pictures with like, No, there's no there's nothing and yet To come up with stuff, and then we'd put that all together really on a Friday, where you'd sit down, take all this stuff. Dennis was living up in Montecito. So I fax everything up there with a code, we'd sit for hours where he would just go picture number and a letter of a caption 16, B 19, A and E. I tell them to go, wonder what your kids are thinking. It's like, you're like, like in that? Donald Sutherland. And I have the needle, like, you're in some enigma code, some guy. So anyway, that really led to taking that half hour and making the best possible, you know, and making it very different. And so, when we did it, we only did the first six episodes, and that first year, we won an Emmy for writing, and then won again. And then we ended up winning best show. It was just the people were used to the Carson sit there talk a monologue, but this was fairly new, seemed to work out and now now it seems, obviously, you know, then Chris Rock came was doing it. And that's really become anything subscription wise. The way to go.

Jeff Dwoskin 21:06

When Dennis Miller was on Saturday live and The Dennis Miller live show I loved I remember watching it, and Dennis Miller was like an early influence on me, like the very first comedy thing I ever did, which wasn't stand up comedy. I worked at a camp, they had a talent show. And I said, I'm gonna do a news thing. So I did, I basically would did Dennis Miller, but I wrote news stories based on everything going on at camp. And, like the different characters and stuff like that. So it was this whole thing. I wish it existed on video, because it was the first time I ever wrote comedy, but I wrote it as like me as Dennis Miller Irish tight. And it was exactly like that. I mean, I love Dennis Miller. I saw him live in concert. I mean, I was I was a really big fan, till his politics started really separating and sort of becoming defining him too much more than then his comedy, but I used to always love it when he got hurt. But then as the day went on, and he just kept saying these words, and you'd be like, you know, a terror Dactyl. You know, like, what, what does he say? Yeah, like, I need to look up every one of his jokes. I mean, I be had to pretend you understood him. Yeah. Well,

Eddie Feldmann 22:17

and a lot of that people think like he Oh, he researches the thing. It's not it's really off the top of it. He just has a deep well of knowledge. So he doesn't sit there. And you know, like, back in the days like encyclopedias like oh, this, you know, it's like, that's all there for the polling is a draw, they are with it. But it is funny, because when we get writers writing for him, or trying to write for him, if they were to, you know, it's a caricature, he wouldn't like that. They wouldn't take the job. Like, it's more like a just write funny, I'll make it my own. Yeah, but there's a cadence. You know, Carvey does such a good, you know, Danis, too. So,

Jeff Dwoskin 22:52

so let me let me ask you this is, is doing a talk show type format, easier? Or harder? Would you say then, like a scripted sitcom, where you have the same cast every week, maybe floating character in and out? You know, with this, you have different people coming in the topics, everything seems to could be like hit or miss, you know, just based on how we get it just Well, yeah, moment,

Eddie Feldmann 23:15

right. Yeah, no, I would say. So. Going back, if you look at like NBC and Johnny Carson, what he did off there all those years, which was basically make it seem like he walked in the door, he had some jokes in his pocket, he could talk to anybody, and he went home five nights a week. And because of that, everyone thought, Well, that's easy. Why can't we do that? I can do that. But you know, he was such a master of it, really inventing the format coming from before that, too. You know, there was so many things he started. So when you're starting these talk shows, NBC had an infrastructure anytime you go out that people have no idea. There's executives, you know, they they don't have never done. This would be it's one of your first jobs where you talk to the studio that's basically in charge of helping you and the first thing they say is like, we don't know anything about this. That's like, Okay, this will be interesting. It looks easy. And that's why it's so hard. And also you have for lately, in the past several years, you don't have a lot of time to put it all together. They'll pick a guy or a woman and say, here's the host, in six weeks, you're on the air, you got to hire 100 People find your writers figured out the voice, book it and then it's like, okay, now here we go. And then for a long time, people would then judge that first show, and they would make a make or break. It's like, well, we just started this six weeks ago, maybe eight weeks ago. So it is harder because and it's harder for executives get their head around. I've had very smart executives say to me, well, when can we see the first script? And you're like, Well, this is a topical show. So a lot of the stuff we're talking about, hasn't happened. We can give you some things. But yeah, this is it's you know, it's like well, when I see the weather, it's Like, well, the weather has to happen. And then we show you the weather. Or we can forecast a couple of days where it's scripted. If you think about it, you know, in order to build a scripted show is, there's a concept there's, oh, we see what the concept then there's a script, we read the script, we gave notes in the script, we cast the script. Now we know who those are. We go, you know, we're, you know, all through the week, there's readings, there's, you know, we punch up all that stuff. Now we shoot it. Oh, is that yet? No, now we can edit it. Now. We're putting it together. Here. It's like we're coming in at 9am. And at five o'clock, a regular workday, an hour goes out on the air, no matter what. It's out there. And so that's yeah, that's a whole different animal than scripted and unscripted has its own issues. And you know, that problems and other things that challenges but yeah, that's the talk show world of it. You don't know what's happening. And then you get to merge all that sort of stuff. And then you're done. And you're like up, tomorrow's another day. Let's go. It

Jeff Dwoskin 25:57

sounds grueling. Sounds very grueling. Because you got to hope really, that all this funny stuff happens, right? You got to find good pictures, like in The Dennis Miller examples, especially if like when you're doing it, like once a week, like John Oliver, does it not once a week to, like you have to kind of the way things work these days. Something happens on a Monday, no one cares on Sunday? Yeah, it's not like things stick around that long. And the references get so lost or dated so quickly. So it's like, you have to be kind of scrambling and figuring out what's going to resonate in that episode. And stick it's kind of the yard. Yeah, thank goodness, you're so good at it.

Eddie Feldmann 26:36

Depends on how you talk to but yeah, John Oliver, I would say is, Well, the good thing about that show is because it's not, oh, this, you know, it's more you can write it. And it's more I always say relevant than day and day. So if a relevant show is like that still, you know, it's like something happens. You can there's ways to deal with it. But it's very relevant because it's about what's happening in the world. And it's opinionated, you know, that helps them but they're, they do such a great job at it. They do like 39 episodes a year we did 26. And even after 26 after a while Dennis was like, What am I mad about this week? Because it's like, yeah, okay, here's what we're loving. Here's what really upsets you. Here's what the six people in the room think is gonna be.

Jeff Dwoskin 27:19

So before we get to the third iteration of your of your working with Dennis Miller, let's go backwards. And talk about Chevy Chase. You mentioned Chevy Chase. What was it like working with Chevy Chase? I mean, his reputation is that he's kind of an asshole. And I hate to say that because I some of my favorite. Yeah, comedic moments are from Chevy Chase, you know, but what was it like to work with them, especially knowing that this is such a high pressure, you know, fast moving type of environment. What was?

Eddie Feldmann 27:47

Well, it was interesting, because Chevy and I grew up close to each other. I grew up in Sargon days, he lived long time in Woodstock, I kind of knew that. I knew where he was and stuff. So and again, I was a last minute thing that I got that job, the head writer that they had in feel they were work was working out. So they brought in some other writers, myself, and then I and Mark Brasil who ended up creating that 70 Show and a bunch of things so that we had worked together. It was a time when, like everyone looked at late night, and again, who's going to be next Carson. So as all this pressure, Chevy apparently, which I didn't know, growing up in upstate New York, was a bit of a dick to people and to the press. So he, you know, constantly kind of dissed them and all through kind of his career. And and so apparently, when he got this talk show, they were kind of gunning for him. That's the, I guess that was part of well, also, what I found out too was when they went to Chevy to host the show, he didn't want to do a talk show. It's like I'm not good at that. I want to do like a, you know, Saturday live like a sketch show something along those lines. And I guess Fox was like, yeah, yeah, we'd love to do that. And I want to work with my friends here. Like, yeah, well, turns out, well, first of all, you can't do a sketch show five nights a week. That's not the format. But he didn't care about that. He's Chevy Chase. So they eventually push them into the type of show that he never wanted to do. So he did, which he I don't think he cared about also show a smart guy and somehow realizes that even if the show fails, they gotta pay me out for my tire contract. And I think armed with those two things, and given all the bullshit that he has to deal with, I don't think he really care. He wanted it to work. But if it didn't, I still make nine or $10 million. So what was interesting, though, but to me, Chevy was really nice to me. He knew that I had just started there. I was like in an office with other people like a copier. And he came in he goes this your office, and I'm like, Well, yeah, this is all the space they had. He's like, Well, no, this can't be come with me. And we walked around the building, which was this theater on Sunset. It's not like a Nickelodeon thing. And he was like, What can this be his office and then there's no space. So he went back and he said to the exec comparison goes, Hey, over the weekend, you got to cut this in half, get carpeted here build him a space because he needs an office where he can write, like, oh, so he did that for me, which was pretty cool. Yeah. So so really good. chebi had grown into it. Yeah. But that wasn't the time period, the time was deliver or die. And that was the late night world at the time. They're expecting huge ratings. I remember in the green room that night, Rupert Murdoch and Mike ovitz being in the same, like, green room with us, and they didn't look happy. Because I don't know. My second job. I don't know, the good bad. I'm just trying to make a living. Again, Fox seems to pull the plug on things later. You realize, if you look at Jimmy Kimmel on those shows, it's like, you realize, like, Hey, you just forget the critics. You just gotta keep doing the show over and over. And eventually, they'll take to it people like it won't like it, but you can't just like, oh, in a month making a hit. That's not gonna happen. Even

Jeff Dwoskin 30:56

Jimmy Fallon needed to grow into his face when he first started the Tonight Show. And you know, he had a little clunky interview with Robert DeNiro. Right. I mean, well,

Eddie Feldmann 31:06

you know, yeah, it's not Yeah, cuz it's the first thing and you know, it's all this. Everyone looks at the first sort of thing. But Jimmy Fallon, you know, that's what he wanted to do since he was in, you know, in high school that his high school yearbook basically said he wanted to take over for Letterman, you know, he was, that was his drive all these people, you have to have that drive for us. You know, it's so much work. And not just the show, but publicity and all that stuff. Letterman. Our friends who worked at Letterman would say that Letterman would get to work the traffic you get in at like, 4:30am. So you wouldn't have to worry about Connecticut traffic, you go. And they said, that means that your boss is there five hours before you walk in the door already gone through the material that you wrote the day before and hates it. So you walk in? It's like, No, this works and they gotta rewrite. And then yeah, it's like, because he's he Leno. Those guys are just so we're so committed to doing that show those shows. So I don't think Terry was that guy. The

Jeff Dwoskin 32:04

only thing I remember from Chevy Chase is and correct me if I'm wrong, a basketball who was that part of the set

Eddie Feldmann 32:11

number? I think there was a basketball hoop but also, there was a fish tank. And so that always became the thing of like, never put anything behind you. That's more interesting than the host. How it's a rule of thumb that came out of that good lesson.

Jeff Dwoskin 32:28

Good luck. Yeah. So that's really funny. As I was going through your IMDB, it's always fun to look at IMDB. And then remember something that you've totally forgotten. What pops out is You Don't Know Jack. Oh, I remember Paul Reubens doing that character choice. Stevens, you know, and this was real popular computer game at the time. Yes. Right. I can. And so Paul Rubens was the host of the show, but he didn't play Paul row. He wasn't himself. That was just that was a nice quick, nostalgic thing. I don't remember that being around that long. But it Well,

Eddie Feldmann 32:59

no. Yeah, it was only lasted. Again. That was that was kind of on a break from my hiatus with Dennis Miller and I got hired to to do that show. That show was kind of kicking around a little bit other net. Some networks had it, they weren't sure what to do with it. HBO had it for a little while. I remember talking to them. So I kinda was aware of it. And then so when I went in to talk to the executive producer, which was Robert Martin, who was, you know, kind of silver from the Letterman Show, I was familiar with it. And I was like, Oh, yeah. And I talked a little about it. And I didn't know I had the job. And he was like, and all of a sudden, they like, there was a call and said, Oh, they want you to go and meet with the executives at ABC. And I'm like, okay, so I walk in the door. Andrea Huang was the woman, this woman at the time I ran as part of ABC, and I sat there and then so she looked at me and said, Oh, Robert Martin said, you had a great handle on the show. What is it? And um, I do what is I don't know what it is. What did I tell them? And so I had the feet go, what did they tell Morty that I thought the show was because he didn't warn me. He's like, Oh, he want to hear your tape. So luckily, the guy that was with her second got called out the room, there was something and he gave me a couple of minutes so I can actually think things up. And remember what I pitched. So I went back and I was like, oh, yeah, I think we do this. And it was just kind of a improv song and dance. But But Paul, the best part of that was working with Paul Rubens who was you know, obviously a big fan of who is a great guy, another guy who grew up by me in Pine plains. So the other side of Woodstock, so he had that to talk about. They wanted him to do it as as Pee Wee Herman, in his mind was he's not doing I'm not doing Peewee Herman for it. That's a whole different thing. And he settled on that character. And yeah, it was. It was a summer time kind of replacement. It came on Fourth of July. I did pretty well. But yeah, it was one of those Well, one season and I think he went on to do some, I don't think he wanted to do it again. It was interesting to work on it.

Jeff Dwoskin 34:55

Yeah. I love Paul Reubens. I think he's so funny. Sorry, dinner. I'd have to take a quick pause, and we're back. Now what pacified you back to Dennis Miller? Where did then oh, there's up again. Yeah. Ready, get ready.

Eddie Feldmann 35:13

So I guess I had done for FX this Orlando Jones Show, which was kind of an experiment to take someone like Orlando who was an actor and kind of make a sketch late night show. So we did really one season of that. But it was again a lot of fraud a little bit. He was he's incredibly talented. It was we're doing an FX but then they wanted to transfer to Fox it was like this executive back and forth or who's paying for it. So whatever that you know, it's like, okay, lesson learned here. It's got decent reviews, it really if they put again, if Fox put time into it, it probably could still be on the air, but they did. So that's their thing. So then Dennis calls me to say that he CNBC Jeff Zucker was like, he wanted me to come over to CNBC. But it's four nights a week. And I thought back to the first show, which was five nights a week. This is one night last night last night. Okay. And it was Jeff heads was trying to do the talk show and nighttime for CNBC was popular with all that stuff. So not a big, very small budget, very different. Not that we had I think we started with two writers, hardly any staff. And really, again, we're you're being judged. There's the Tonight Show, just down the lot spending millions of dollars. And then here's this low budget show. Well, it's part of TV where you know, cable and network dissolves into each other and nobody looks at like, oh, that's cable over here. And that's network. It's like, no, the same people at home don't know any difference. So you're kind of judged by, hey, we have we have like, we don't have an audience. There's like bleachers like a high school football game. We had a couple writers were in the side building. We didn't even have production assistants. When we started. The guy from CNBC said no, you don't need those. Don't worry, we CNBC, that, you know, the talent, just, you know, we just get some send a writer to get the talent, you don't need anything like that. Well, our first guest was Arnold Schwarzenegger. We're getting the first show. And it's like, oh, you know, there's a lot going on there, how everything working, we're testing and things. And all of a sudden we look and Schwarzenegger sitting in the interview chair. It's like, who went again, got him? Nobody. He just got tired, bored. He walked out to the set. He's on the source. And again, was sat there. And so that was the way that we got to production assistant because we could say the CNBC exactly what they see. This is what Kansas has Schwarzenegger wandering around his 70s. Okay, so that's how we got a production system to help us assure that celebrities also wanted to get us on that show was Donald Trump and Melania. Just, but not only that, he was out doing publicity, and did a somewhat famous interview on a bus on that trip with Billy Bush, that seems historically the play into his back. So that was all in that same little time period. That was about as I look back at 2000 2004 2000.

Jeff Dwoskin 38:12

Yeah, yeah. Yeah. So did you get to meet Donald Trump and

Eddie Feldmann 38:15

yeah, yes, said hello, and those sort of things. But yeah, came in and it was just remember Trump looking at our stage. It's like, what's this?

Jeff Dwoskin 38:26

So low budget. So yeah,

Eddie Feldmann 38:29

it's like, you're walking out. He just looked around, there was only half a step. And the other half was used for something else. So it just was a small little place.

Jeff Dwoskin 38:37

He's comparing you to Mara Lago

Eddie Feldmann 38:39

Oh, yeah. It's like that. Nice show. Thanks. Yeah. So I think it gets gave this look like, what am I doing? So? Yeah, but yeah, that's and that also, I mean, I think you're leading that way is, at that time, Bush was president Dennis was kind of like, he's always been, it will tell you somewhat conservative, but all during Dennis Miller live, all the writers, when he would come in, he'd have some sort of thought, and then the writer would say, Yeah, but that can't be true. And he takes balanced the opinions of it. He seemed to after 911 kind of move that way with Bush and I don't want to make fun of bush and vaccines, the lead down that road eventually morphed heavier to the right, than he had ever been before. And to be honest, I don't creatively comedy wise. No, the that the right is kind of the gulyas You know, as a comedians, you know, we make fun of gulyas So, like, where do your targets the poor, go after that? Homeless? Not easy targets to do that?

Jeff Dwoskin 39:40

No, I agree with you. Yeah, you gotta go for the big guy. So there was The Dennis Miller 2004 2005 Bush era show was his move towards much more political bent. Yeah,

Eddie Feldmann 39:53

but you know, before there was always jokes and everything he literally kind of made a choice to like, you know, not go after Bush. I will say Early in his career, he did make certain choices where every comedian, thinker with what's the guy's name was the wasn't Stackhouse? There was a blank stack? No, no, he, no, no, he ran for a memory. He was a veteran. He had hearing problems. And then people were making fun of him. I forgot he was the vice presidential choice. And so that is a row per row. Yeah, I want to say stock house, but I think that's an actor. But he purposely championed him to jail, Stockdale. Yes, that's right, to where it's like, no, I'm gonna make fun of the guy. He's a hero. I mean, he can't hear because, you know, when he was a prisoner of war, they clapped his the clap his ears, and he broke his eardrum, so I'm not going after him. So that was a choice. It was a good one, I thought. But then later, he kind of made more of a choice of like, I don't want to do Bush jokes, just to do Bush jokes. So okay, now at that, you know, at that point, in your juncture, can only say, Okay, well do other stuff, just how it got out. But yeah, so then that show lasted for two years, or a little less than two years. And but it was a nightly show. It was fun to do that there was a great staff on it. Like anything, then that ended. And

Jeff Dwoskin 41:11

from there, you went on to work with another SNL alum, David Spade. Yeah,

Eddie Feldmann 41:17

the show of his show. So I knew David, again, from that whole sort of click and SNL click and down into the on different shows. And literally, that show had been on a couple of episodes. And I got a call from Comedy Central to talk to David and his I know his management stuff. So kind of went in there first, this kind of network consult, which was new to me. Again, all these shows are, you're starting up, people are trying to figure it out. There's network nodes, there's producer notes, there's David Spade notes. So kind of came in as somebody who had been doing before to kind of like, oh, okay, you've been told this, you've been told us here, I think is the right way to go. Let's go. Let's try it that way. You think is a really talented showrunner and army comedian. I knew for years, started the show, did pilots and then they brought in Dave, at that point, it was no longer the you think creative show. It was the David Spade show. So what you have to kind of realize that as a writer, and as a producer, like he's the host, everything revolves around him. Could be David Spade. Could be anybody. That's how this stuff works. But Dave is great. He's really talented. Funny. So it was a fun little ride for that.

Jeff Dwoskin 42:26

I love David Spade, but I could see where he you made the comparison earlier to Tabasco sauce with Dennis Miller. I could see like David Spade being similar in that sense that his sarcastic snarky style, maybe doesn't appeal to literally every but Oh, yeah. Yeah. I happen to think he's one of the funniest stand ups. And I've always enjoyed like his rants on SNL. And he would do all those Hollywood minutes and all that kind of stuff. But I find him hilarious. But he's gone on to other shows. They seem to like what you're saying not give him enough time to kind of really find his footing.

Eddie Feldmann 43:02

Yeah. And that show was interesting, because it's show business. And I had this conversation with Comedy Central was was, you know, we had done 13 episodes a year. And it's like, well, showbiz. This doesn't end because the show is going on hiatus? Shouldn't this be 26 And he wanted more episodes, that wasn't their business pattern at the time. We tried to talk them into doing more shows. And then what happened was Adam Sandler was starting a sitcom actually created by this guy, Tom hertz, who I had first hired as new as the stand up for Dennis Miller live. And so spade had a network out in his contract and went to do that, because it was a full year, and he made more money and more people saw him. So, you know, I think Comedy Central could have easily just said, Hey, we want you we're gonna do 22 episodes a year, you know, we want this year round will space it out. But that at that time, that wasn't what they were up to. So he went off to do you know, a sitcom with Sandler company, so years and became the funny guy who zips in some funny stuff. Zips out back. That's his thing.

Jeff Dwoskin 44:12

It's awesome. So you you've had quite a career in the late night world, you've kind of seen everything. Which ones do you watch now? And where do you where do you spend your time? Late night right now? Do you? Who's your favorite?

Eddie Feldmann 44:24

Oh, well, the quick answer is nowhere. I've done too much of it. But I will sound you know, a sample and I think, cold there for where, you know, I remember meeting Stephen when he was just going to be starting called The Colbert Report, and sitting having dinner with him. And when he's trying to figure that out and to see kind of how he's taken this arc from playing a character, where I'm the Hey, I'm the Republican character to what he's doing. It's, you know, at CBS and all through the Trump era, as that have been Coming very opinionated, you know, to me, he has a biggest career arc of like where he was and where he is Kimmel again knowing him from Man Show and things, and not from as a stand up. I think the writing is good, I see where you're gonna go watch them all the time. But I'm like, oh, amazed of how he's able to morph in there. And then and Jimmy Fallon is somebody who, when I was doing my first talk show with Dennis Miller, and was on the Tribune, and trivia and eras had to go and do little right little sketches myself, and played like, kind of as a Bill Nye, Nye science nerd. I got a package from my mother and a letter from this kid in high school who wanted to be a comedian. And, and it was from Jimmy Fallon, because we went to the same high school, you know, he's like, Oh, I saw you. I see you on Dennis Miller, and your sketches and things. And so, you know, when Jimmy was coming up, and coming on to the late night scene, I just think it was interesting, where, what he chose how he chose, and because again, knowing the drive from when he was a kid, to wanting to be the host of this thing and making it, I see what he's doing, as far as turning that into, like, what should be your own point of view. So I'll tune in every wants to see what he's doing, you know, the musical stuff that was kind of where he came out of in that world. And then there's, there's other people we haven't even you know, talked about, like Arsenio and, and those guys what they've dealt with, they did and now like Chris Rock, or, Hey, Zeus and Nero, I think, it's like, oh, there people are changing things up again, Sam J. So it's interesting to see how things are morphing. And again, changing back from I remember, I got in trouble when we're doing this Orlando Jones Show, because the kind of the promo that we wanted to do was no desk, no white guy, and FX got just tore up because they're like, you can't say you can't do that. And like, Well, it's true. We're not using a desk. He's on a couch. And there's no and he's black. So it's interesting to see the world. How now, you know, becoming a little bit more diverse and trying different things. Excellent.

Jeff Dwoskin 47:09

insights. Thank you. I'm always asleep. Oh, yeah. So that's why I wanted I was asking more just so i Oh, no, no, but again, I'm always asleep. I know the way you are. And you say, what's the state of late night? Yeah.

Eddie Feldmann 47:21

Yeah. So I mean, yeah, I mean, when you think about it, if we can't, like, it's a show on at 130 in the morning, it's like, at one time when I was doing stand up, but I come home and be like, Oh, I can watch the show at 130. Now, you know, maybe I wake up by accident. It does. But yeah, it's, it's a different world. But yeah, I think all of those guys are doing really great jobs. And let

Jeff Dwoskin 47:45

me end on a very important question. Where do you keep your five Emmys?

Eddie Feldmann 47:50

Oh, well, I had kept them in, you know, some room where they are. And every once in a while, people walk by and go, Hey, what's like, you know, who walks by like the plumber on the way to, to fix a toilet and then in the guest room, but it goes, Oh, hey, well, what, especially in a lake because like, hey, what were those four, and then the towel. So now now they're in storage? Because moving? And so I had to put them away? And then so yeah, I'll put the Yeah, they're out. Not they don't sit in the front part of the house somewhere. But they're there somewhere. Yeah, yeah. But no, it's a bit. You know, look, it's one of those things. It's a nice accomplishment. It was really pretty special to win to and walk around the governor's ball with one in each hand.

Jeff Dwoskin 48:34

I think it's an amazing accomplishment. Yeah. Oh, my goodness. It's it's absolutely incredible. Very cool. You've had an amazing career. Do you have any? Anything on the horizon? A anything you're working on right now? Any? Yeah,

Eddie Feldmann 48:47

I'm working on several things. And one of them is with Adam Sandler's company is his comedy competition that we've been developing and that we're looking now in the middle of catching a host, someone that I spoke about. I can't say who it is, but I did mention their name. And this interviews, you can go back and have some sort of like poker mind puzzle, and see if you can find that. So that's moving along pretty well. I have a show with Sutton Foster, that I'm really happy about which is kind of a it's a camp. That's many of Camp camp musical high, which is really a kid's kind of Broadway Competition Series. And that's, you know, we're should have some good news about that coming up. Yeah. So I have a bunch of other stuff. But yeah, I keep busy. And then maybe in the late night world if we keep going. There may be a limited series about again, somebody else I spoke about late night history.

Jeff Dwoskin 49:44

Nigma I'm gonna hope it's Chevy Chase. Oh, yeah. Well, David. Maybe it should be. Yeah. Eddie, thank you so much for spending so much time with me. Where can people keep up with you on social medias?

Eddie Feldmann 49:58

I'm at on Twitter. Hey, EddieFeldmann, I NAB that monitor. So that's kind of the most thing. You know, I don't think people go to LinkedIn, but kind of see what I'm doing there. I'm on Facebook.

Jeff Dwoskin 50:10

Very cool. Thank you. I enjoyed this entire late night 101 It was amazing hearing everything you were doing. Thank you so much.

Eddie Feldmann 50:19

All right. Appreciate it. It was great. All

Jeff Dwoskin 50:22

right, everyone. That was Eddie Feldmann. So many great stories from all the Dennis Miller shows and how he met Dennis Miller and Chevy Chase. And behind the scenes of the Chevy Chase show dally so much. This episode was just jam packed with everything but mayo. No mayo on this episode. That's how good you know it is. All right. Well, with the interview over that can only mean one thing I know the episode is over. Can't believe it either. One more huge. Thank you to my guest, Eddie Feldmann. And 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.

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