7/28/2019 Bob & Ray retrospective, Bob Elliott interview

1/3

0ntheLaughTraOfBobandhyBv FnANr LovEcE

AIIRE, they say, iswhat closes on Sat-urday night. But inthe propitious case of Boband Ray, satire is whatruns through September

7/28/2019 Bob & Ray retrospective, Bob Elliott interview

2/3

you have what is known as a'cheeseburger,' " he carefully mouths the exot-ic, perhaps French words. !'That's verypopular,'r he assures.Wally Ballou. . . the man from SlowTalkers of America . . "Mary Back-stayge, Noble Wife" . . . Bert and Har-ry Piel, the cartoon pitchmen for PielsBeer . . it's hard to imagine anyonenot runninginto Bob and Ray's charac-ters after 40-odd - very odd delight,fully odd - years. It was buttondownhurnor before Bob Newhart, pop-cul-hrre parody before Mad magaaihe."I think one reason for our longev-ity," muses longtime New YorkeiEl-liott, sitting in a museum conferenoenoom, "is we never did stay in arry oneplace too long. 14le did a couple of yearson NBC-fi/, then ABC, had ashow on NBC radio, on WINS, onWHN, an afternoon show on WOR ontwo different occasions. Ttle even did ashow on WNEW-FM, 'where rocklives."'He shakes his head, amused atthe incongnrityhonically, it takes a lot to amusehim. At 69, Elliott can still hita punch-

as

Il

"SIc weren't a Bob Hope," Elliottconedes, resigned to the fart Now thatRay's gone and Bob is semiretired, theynever will be.But tell that to the audienes in thepacked theater downstairs, comedy co-gnoscenti for whom the mugeqm al-ready mounted a Rob and Ray tribrrtein 1982. Author Kurt Vonnegut Jr.praised them in an essay at the time."Ferv other contemporgry,flramatistohave have created so many memorablecharacters," he wrote, t'third-ratersall.""We knew instinctively what ureliked, what ue thought was funny, andthat's what we did," Elliott says. "Wenever really tried to analyze what wedid too much. The frst NBC publicityman said we 'punctured pomposi[r,'and that's about what we did. Sre ob-senred people and incidents around usand just did them practically ttre waythey appeared in real h e. It was theanglpwe looked atthatfnade itfunnn Ithink. And the characters,l' he notee.' nerrer

ing and teThis wasstation WIwaa a DJ awoman's pderwood, wIiott startedtrro yeare tcombat at"I ca^mesooq as I erecalls. *Rtion [WEEand I hadnreason hishadn't beemine and aat every sWHDH a feRay -Gosounded aclassmatenewscasteaeded_Bobin with meq, l'and

7/28/2019 Bob & Ray retrospective, Bob Elliott interview

3/3

]r{{-ho^g s}row, and then a morningh0br. After fiveyears, an audition witfrtqfu. After five years, an audition wiMC in New York brnunhf. flra drrnn New York brcught the duo a

Designed foi them in 1951 bv Edaham of the Young & Rubicain ad

weekly national radio-.hoo": forr"pQgt-hs-later, tb"y simultaneouslylalnched "The Bo5 and Ray Show;'(qta "Inside Bob and Ray") -o" wgC-T\r. Running in various time slots andfomats in those early television d"Jrs,tltb series lasted throueh late lgb3: iu-driey Meadows and Cloiis Leachnan af-tennated as the female foil.. telwision, it turned out, wasn't real-t their medium - "fi1s Soofers haveabout the same general -appeal thatmight be aooorded a Bach -fiirnre or aT. S. Eliot couplet," lameited TVGuide, admiringty, the week the showwas canceled. Yet television ironicallypmrrided Bob and Ray with their besi-knowrr charactB,rs: th6 cartoon bnothersBirt and Harry Piel.aggncy, the ehort, loudmouthed Bertand the tall, dignified Harrv starred inoommercials for the locallymade piels&ier. As the fictitious cofrpany treads,they bantered back and foith,-ostensi-bly brainstorming their TV ads. Some-tines they broke the fourth wall andcalled attention to their very artificial-iW,. i'Fy, that's -real drinking pleasure,ien't it, viewers?" Bert would-ask. ,.And, . . wait a minutet I asked for a cloee-PLElsr Tunt To ploE 24

us- , movres s nce his deathand in several successful Los Angel.. *rm of the*_ 1, $urnel, plal "Lo1,e Lette-rq;' ,,NGh; ;.Eiarth" was her first feature f-rlm in Jeveralyerrs., _'f,I *o,t" th" pTt for her never dreamingshe'ddo rt, and when she saidyes, I was ecstaticl, saysJarmusch. "Because I'm such a huge fa", f *i"BOBAI\IDRAY

ap shot of the label of our twelve-ounce bottle!" Thecommercials ran from 1gb1-60 and again from1.962-6q, with a nostalgic one-shot upp.."*r."-inthe rnid-'70s."I drank it as much as I drink beer at all," Elliottsays. -"f'm not a beer drinker. And a"#t"-*t.ieverybody s3ld, it did imqrove ou". tti" fe;.. i;:erybodysai9 jhuy P.gyg-ht the beerjust ou[ of loyaltyto tsert and Harry!" (The piels commerci"t, upp"#1n lhe museum's-Juq9-n"ogr;m ;iiou ""a n#ih"Salesmen," along witi ads for Mutual "i d;;i;lnsurance,'l'ime magazine and Nescafe coffee.)_*p and,qy weni o3-to g*n"gr. HJii" issa,Erndthrough theyears did radio shows and TVenresf:lot? ever;nvhere from ,,The Ed Sullivan Shoi,'tothe short-lived sitcom ,.Coming ofAge" fCgS, No\r14,.1988), one of their last lpp"earances together."Flay had been sick for abbit ten years,; nffiottsays tende.rly. "He.wgs on_ dialysij threL d;t;;week, five hours each time. It was terrible. g"itt "w9 9ayq a week he could work, he worked.,'After his beloved p-?"tt ""'s death on March 24,1990-, Elliott shook off tempting thoughi, of-rlti"liqg. H" co-staned on the firit t#o seas6.rs of ,1Get a!j{R,' ptlyedBob Newhart,s father on one episodeot "N_ewhart,".and did a memorable turn as i barrkguard in the movie,,euick Chanle.': H;b"r"*.-;

,,, "ybe -ying a guywt-o g9t up induring thepretty gooKristineLos Angele

l"utt t4e$o Cwrote thtell-all csa-yg t_rgwith him"Com{gu ggtfilmed ?ber, stilFlliott slove to.pknow ifdoing thPlgbaored buthimself,happy:"smooth lpeen l-qoI wouldn, F1r1 ,tdo'i At leum,-presffi,t"f,lurank