evocateur eng

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(water dripping )

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(woman singing )

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Hello, folks.
What do you know?

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- Hello, Lou.
- Hiya, baby.

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Say, Bennie,
I got a new song.

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You don't mind
if I use the piano, do ya?

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Go ahead.

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(man singing )
♪ Papa... ♪

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♪ My inspiration is you... ♪

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(woman singing )
<i>I</i> Mama... ♪

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Morton Downey, Jr.:
Sit down, you fat bitch.

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- Listen, you.
- Sit down!

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( Cheering )

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Morton Downey, Jr.,
I only hope you'd be

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as famous
as your famous dad.

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Just one other question--

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how much further can it go?

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Joey Reynolds:
It became a cartoon.

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( Roaring )

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( blade rings )

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Glenn Beck:
America is at a crossroads.

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We must advance or perish.

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Glenn Beck, Hannity,
O'Reilly, they're all people

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saying, you know,
what's in their heart.

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I think Glenn Beck has become big

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because he's the only one
telling the truth.

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Morton Downey is the folk hero
of the United States.

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He stands up
for what he believes in.

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He captures the heartbeat
of America.

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Downey, Jr.: My audience
finally selected a spokesman

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that identifies with their needs

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and with their dreams
and with their frustrations.

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We're proud of this flag.

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I love those people.

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I'll do everything
to protect them.

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Bob Pittman: I was the programmer
who started MTV.

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If indeed we have 60 channels
of television available

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to the American public
24 hours a day,

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everything that there is
a significant interest in

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ought to be represented.

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What's curious to me
is a lot of critics say,

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"Oh, we shouldn't offer that."
I mean that's like saying,

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"We're only going to put
these 20 books in the library

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because they're the only ones we can
all agree upon are good books."

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MTV shook up
what TV could be.

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We refused to live within

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the boundaries of what
was thought of as TV.

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Good evening.
It's time once again to play chicken.

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My name is Joe Pyne.
We'll test your nerve in just a moment.

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But I didn't want to be Mr. MTV
my whole life.

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I was 30 years old, 31 years old,

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and looking
for more fun things to do

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that I had never done before.

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Pyne:
With us now is Jerry Rubin.

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He advocates
disobedience of law.

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( Audience booing )

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Pittman: So I set out to find
a new talk show.

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We started talking about it,
you know,

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"Remember
'The Joe Pyne Show' from the '60s?

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No show like that
on TV anymore."

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I dislike the fact that you went
to Cuba as Castro's guest.

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You consort with the enemies
of this country.

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This alone is reason enough
to consider you a menace.

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- Taking a hard and fast opinion...
- Pyne: You are a disruptor...

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- driving the opinion home.
- Rubin: Do you wanna hear my views?

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No politeness.

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I think this is a circus
and that you're a fool

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and we are not
in any way discussing--

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You're a liar and a danger
to the country.

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Pittman:
Often, you know, you go back

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and recycle an idea,
update an idea.

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( Booing )

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But it's dependent upon
finding the person.

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(thunder rumbling )

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Mort had been around radio,
talk radio.

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Wally George:
Morton Downey, Jr.

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Now, Morton--
I was on this guy's so-called

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conservative radio show.

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I resent
the charges you made

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saying that I was a disgrace
to the conservative cause,

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that I didn't know
what I was talking about.

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You are the one, baby,
who are a conservative-come-lately.

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You're the phony!

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Pittman:
Mort just understood performance.

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Now do you wanna hear
some facts?

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I am the same kind
of phony, Wally--

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I am the same kind of phony,
if you want to let me answer--

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I'm the same kind of phony
that you are.

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Pittman: How you turn everything
into something theatrical.

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- Don't warn me, punk!
- ( crowd yells )

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Pittman: We met Mort
in person and we go,

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"He could be good."

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Stay in your seat.
Stay in your seat.

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Pittman:
He was good on the radio...

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but just made for television.

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( Audience cheering )

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Well, good evening, everybody.

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How are ya?
I'm Mort Downey, Jr.,

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and as you're going to find out
in the weeks, months,

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and years ahead, certain things
really burn my buns, all right?

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One thing that's happening
is the morality of this country

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is on a low ebb and it's getting lower.

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It's not getting better.

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It's getting worse.

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We're going to examine
this topic tonight.

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And this is where the risers
that you guys sat in were.

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And he would start kissing
the first row of ladies.

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Mort just sort of tapped right into
that 17-year-old

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male, you know, something.

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Where other 17-year-olds might be
doing other stuff at night,

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I mean, we were driving to Secaucus

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to go onto
"The Morton Downey, Jr. Show."

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( <i>chuckles</i> )

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It was a provocative show
to deliberately provoke the guest

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and provoke confrontation.

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And he took it further than anyone
that was on television.

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There's a war going on
in the streets of America--

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a war on drugs and the slime
that sell them to our kids.

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Former Congressman, Ron Paul,

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how can you call
for something un-American--

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the legalization of drugs?

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Because I detest the use of drugs
and I think we would

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have a lot less drugs used
if they were legal.

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I think it's part
of the American system

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to let people make choices
about their own personal habits.

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He knew how to manipulate.

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He could have been a serial killer.

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Do you believe that
the government should stay

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out of our personal
business altogether?

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Well, it happens to be my--
all right, that's good, guys.

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It also happens to be my
personal business

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if I want to kill
my four-year-old kid, right?

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- Paul: No, no, no, no.
- No?

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Wait a minute, wait.
You're giving--

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you're giving libertarian
a distorted explanation.

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Rebecca Johnson:
If you're not tethered to the facts,

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that's incredibly entertaining.

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You can just say anything.

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Yeah, yeah, you know, you're not
tethered to the facts, right.

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But I will say this, Mort had
amazing charisma on the set.

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He related totally
on an emotional level.

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There was no intellectual level
for Mort.

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I'll stick to the issues, pal.

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If I had a slime like you

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in the White House,
I'd puke on you.

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( Cheering )

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Who's for prohibition
of alcohol in this room?

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Who's for prohibition of alcohol?

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Three people!

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He attacked a guest with a voracity

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that was unbelievable
and people loved him for it.

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I mean they--
they loved him for it.

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We get high on the ideas
of freedom.

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We get high because
freedom is worth--

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( chanting )
Just say no! Just say no!

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You say no!
You have the courage to do it.

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I think I detect
his voice changing.

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Maybe his cojones
are getting small.

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And cut to a commercial.
And I said, "Oh, my God!"

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That's the kinda <i>class</i> act--

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And when you're changing
channels and you land on that,

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you tend to stop, like you say,
at a car accident and go,

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"Oh, my God, let me watch this
for a minute or two more."

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Before that,
it was considered very uncool

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to be that abusive to a guest.

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Well, the other side of that
was Phil Donahue.

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How in the world does a person
become a foot model?

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And could you be one?

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When we come back,
in just a moment.

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Richard Bey: The host would do
an interview on the stage.

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Do you wear high heels?
Hang on one second.

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Let me get some
of the folks back here.

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Bey:
Then run through the audience

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and get their
fairly polite questions.

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My question's for Herschel.

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I'd like to know
what got you into ballet.

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And here are
the fairly polite answers.

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I need a hint.
How do you get your husband

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to do anything
around the house?

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You know...

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Sally Jessy Raphael:
I know what Downey was doing.

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He was ripping off

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every single aspect
of Joe Pyne perfectly.

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How do you get the last drops
of ketchup out of a bottle?

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Pittman: We learned
that TV was out of step

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with the American public.

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And what happens?

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All the ketchup is forced
to the neck of the bottle.

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Pittman:
That America, after Watergate,

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had given up
this false politeness.

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In the '80s,
it was time for it to end.

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Downey, Jr.: Quarantine for a person
with AIDS, even though we know

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AIDS can only be caught
basically in sexual ways?

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Do you know that it has
never been proven that AIDS

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can be sexually transmitted?

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It has never been proven
in a laboratory.

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No, I don't know that because

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I've spoken to a number
of people in the CDC.

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I'm in the middle of this,
you ought to know that, Mort.

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I'm in the middle of research,
have been for a number of years.

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Downey, Jr.: Are you a research expert?
Are you a research expert?

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Shut up and let me answer
the question.

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You shut up.
Are you a research expert?

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Are you a research expert?

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- Why don't you shut up?
- Why don't you shut up?

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All you're doing
is spewing garbage.

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00:10:02,519 --> 00:10:04,487
Chris Elliott: I was attracted
to that kind of awkward,

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dangerous atmosphere.

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When he first
came on the scene,

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I was immediately

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sort of mesmerized
by the show.

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Downey, Jr.:
A "vecan"?

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00:10:14,906 --> 00:10:17,750
A vegan, I abstain--

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Downey, Jr.: Let me hear
what she has to say here.

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00:10:19,828 --> 00:10:21,830
Go ahead,
you abstain from what?

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Yes, I abstain
from all animal products,

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including dairy and clothing.

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Downey, Jr.:
And clothing?

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- I eat raw hamburger.
- And what is your cholesterol?

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I eat raw fish.

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I smoke four packs
of cigarettes a day.

222
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I drink-- I have
about four drinks a day.

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I'm 55 years old.

224
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And I look as good
as you do, vegan.

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( Audience cheering )

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He was in your face.

227
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He was take-no-prisoners.

228
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What the hell is a feminist?

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00:11:01,411 --> 00:11:04,085
I thought anyone who had breasts
was a feminist.

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There are almost no feminists
who have ever burned a bra,

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so let me get that straight--

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There's almost no feminists
who ever had anything

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that they needed
to wear a bra for.

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Between us, there was
a certain amount of sexual tension.

235
00:11:15,884 --> 00:11:19,013
Likewise on your jockstrap,
but in any case...

236
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How does she know?

237
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She has a tape measure
on her tongue?

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I was used to being
on "The MacNeil/Lehrer Hour,"

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00:11:29,564 --> 00:11:32,443
"Nightline," where everything
was so dignified.

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To take up this issue
is Alan Dershowitz,

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00:11:34,819 --> 00:11:37,117
a professor of law
at Harvard University.

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Alexander Hamilton once said
that the civilization--

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All of a sudden, then,
almost as, like--

244
00:11:44,537 --> 00:11:47,461
like the yin and the yang,
you had Morton Downey, Jr.,

245
00:11:47,624 --> 00:11:49,626
identifying with a lot of the issues

246
00:11:49,792 --> 00:11:51,214
that average, everyday people had.

247
00:11:51,377 --> 00:11:53,550
Don't listen to this guy.

248
00:11:53,713 --> 00:11:55,807
- The prosecution--
- Listen to Professor Dershowitz.

249
00:11:55,965 --> 00:11:58,889
Dershowitz:
--a prosecutor is not your lawyer.

250
00:11:59,052 --> 00:12:00,725
You had Downey
yelling at these people

251
00:12:00,887 --> 00:12:02,935
who you felt like
yelling at sometimes.

252
00:12:03,097 --> 00:12:05,691
If I depended on a guy like you,

253
00:12:05,850 --> 00:12:07,818
New Jersey's
preeminent lawyer,

254
00:12:07,977 --> 00:12:11,698
I'd find my ass in the crapper
for the rest of my life.

255
00:12:11,856 --> 00:12:14,985
Raphael: Which is what all
the reality shows today are based on.

256
00:12:15,151 --> 00:12:17,449
Who said this guy's
New Jersey's preeminent lawyer?

257
00:12:17,612 --> 00:12:19,831
There is that prurient

258
00:12:19,989 --> 00:12:23,118
excitement of not nice people...

259
00:12:23,284 --> 00:12:25,503
White intellectual
trash like you

260
00:12:25,662 --> 00:12:28,336
who don't know about
the inner city.

261
00:12:28,498 --> 00:12:29,795
...saying not nice things.

262
00:12:29,958 --> 00:12:32,837
When was the last time
you looked in a mirror?

263
00:12:33,002 --> 00:12:35,380
It probably cracked.

264
00:12:35,546 --> 00:12:38,800
You weren't quite sure
whether it was all set up

265
00:12:38,967 --> 00:12:41,811
or whether some of it was set up
or whether it was all real.

266
00:12:41,970 --> 00:12:43,096
Creamy homemade taste.

267
00:12:43,263 --> 00:12:44,856
Hello, everyone, I'm Maury--

268
00:12:45,014 --> 00:12:46,516
Langan:
Almost the first fan letter

269
00:12:46,683 --> 00:12:49,402
was from this Catholic
high school in New Jersey.

270
00:12:49,560 --> 00:12:51,528
( Bell ringing )

271
00:12:54,148 --> 00:12:57,402
Someone invited Mort
to go to assembly

272
00:12:57,568 --> 00:13:00,367
where they were discussing
"The Morton Downey, Jr. Show."

273
00:13:00,530 --> 00:13:03,124
Should it be on TV, shouldn't it be?

274
00:13:04,867 --> 00:13:06,585
( Thumps, creaks )

275
00:13:06,744 --> 00:13:09,998
We arrived
at this Catholic high school.

276
00:13:13,710 --> 00:13:15,883
They just swarmed
like he was the Beatles.

277
00:13:16,045 --> 00:13:18,423
( Girls screaming )

278
00:13:19,590 --> 00:13:23,220
Mort turned to me
and he goes, "Jesus Christ."

279
00:13:23,386 --> 00:13:25,434
He goes, "What's happened?
What have I done?

280
00:13:25,596 --> 00:13:27,940
I'm a 55-year-old, middle-aged guy

281
00:13:28,099 --> 00:13:30,773
and I've got 14-year-old
Catholic girls in skirts

282
00:13:30,935 --> 00:13:32,733
climbing
on the hood of my car."

283
00:13:32,895 --> 00:13:35,614
And we all looked
at each other and went,

284
00:13:35,773 --> 00:13:38,526
"Something's changed here."

285
00:13:38,693 --> 00:13:40,787
And we'd only been on the air
for about a month.

286
00:13:47,452 --> 00:13:49,125
Morton Downey, Sr.:
ls "Stormy Weather" all right?

287
00:13:54,542 --> 00:13:56,840
♪ Don't know why ♪

288
00:13:57,003 --> 00:13:59,472
♪ There's no sun up in the sky ♪

289
00:13:59,630 --> 00:14:02,258
♪ Stormy weather ♪

290
00:14:02,425 --> 00:14:07,397
♪ Since my gal and I
ain't together ♪

291
00:14:07,555 --> 00:14:10,024
♪ It's raining all the time. ♪

292
00:14:10,183 --> 00:14:13,813
Lloyd Schoonmaker:
Mort's father was Morton Downey, Sr.

293
00:14:13,978 --> 00:14:16,777
Some people called him
the first recording star in America.

294
00:14:19,442 --> 00:14:22,537
He had a beautiful voice.
♪ Oh, Danny boy, the pipes-- ♪

295
00:14:22,695 --> 00:14:24,368
And my dad just loved him.

296
00:14:24,530 --> 00:14:27,579
I want to sing for you here today
a new one I call "Jericho."

297
00:14:27,742 --> 00:14:31,337
( music playing )

298
00:14:31,496 --> 00:14:34,500
♪ Way, way back
in the Bible days ♪

299
00:14:34,665 --> 00:14:38,044
♪ Though there was no craze
for jazz... ♪

300
00:14:39,545 --> 00:14:41,218
Schoonmaker:
Mort's mother was a dancer,

301
00:14:41,381 --> 00:14:43,304
one of the Bennett sisters.

302
00:14:43,466 --> 00:14:47,516
A showbiz family,
but a sadly broken family.

303
00:14:49,931 --> 00:14:51,683
His father was gone all the time.

304
00:14:55,853 --> 00:14:59,778
The father refused to let the mother
have any contact with the son.

305
00:15:03,861 --> 00:15:06,364
I had asked him
what his mother died of

306
00:15:06,531 --> 00:15:08,784
and he just says, "Alcoholism."

307
00:15:08,950 --> 00:15:11,999
He said his father
drove her to drink.

308
00:15:13,204 --> 00:15:15,582
So, really,
Mort was denied his mother.

309
00:15:17,125 --> 00:15:19,002
Langan:
He hated his father.

310
00:15:19,168 --> 00:15:21,512
He wanted to say that he sold
more records than his father.

311
00:15:21,671 --> 00:15:23,048
Listen to this one.

312
00:15:23,214 --> 00:15:25,592
This is his first record,

313
00:15:25,758 --> 00:15:29,228
his debut, picked out
an old standard to bring back.

314
00:15:29,387 --> 00:15:30,980
- Will it be a hit...
-( note rings)

315
00:15:31,139 --> 00:15:32,140
or a miss?

316
00:15:32,306 --> 00:15:35,606
Kelli Downey Cornwall: My dad
was always trying to be a singer.

317
00:15:35,768 --> 00:15:37,816
And, you know, he didn't have

318
00:15:37,979 --> 00:15:40,073
my grandfather's voice.

319
00:15:40,231 --> 00:15:46,159
♪ I walk along the street
of sorrow ♪

320
00:15:46,320 --> 00:15:48,038
♪ Sorrow, sorrow ♪

321
00:15:48,197 --> 00:15:51,952
♪ The boulevard
of broken dreams ♪

322
00:15:52,118 --> 00:15:53,495
♪ Broken dreams ♪

323
00:15:53,661 --> 00:15:56,335
♪ Where Gigolo and Gigolette ♪

324
00:15:56,497 --> 00:15:59,250
♪ Can take a kiss without regret ♪

325
00:15:59,417 --> 00:16:02,512
♪ So they forget
their broken dreams... ♪

326
00:16:05,089 --> 00:16:07,433
What did you think
of Morton's first effort?

327
00:16:07,592 --> 00:16:10,436
I loved it. I really did.
I thought it was just wonderful.

328
00:16:10,595 --> 00:16:13,769
And I'm so glad that they
picked an old song for him.

329
00:16:13,931 --> 00:16:16,559
He's got a very new type voice,

330
00:16:16,726 --> 00:16:20,196
modern, well, no,
but he's very modern in his style.

331
00:16:20,354 --> 00:16:23,107
Now, did this young man
impress you as a vocalist?

332
00:16:23,274 --> 00:16:24,901
Impressed me very much.

333
00:16:25,067 --> 00:16:27,286
I don't think he sounds anything
like his father.

334
00:16:27,445 --> 00:16:30,289
He has a much bigger and a much
deeper voice than his father.

335
00:16:30,448 --> 00:16:33,201
- Dean?
- Hmm?

336
00:16:33,367 --> 00:16:35,711
Did I wake you?
I'm sorry.

337
00:16:35,870 --> 00:16:37,964
No, no, I was just thinking
about this record.

338
00:16:38,122 --> 00:16:40,966
They didn't give this boy
a chance, you know.

339
00:16:41,125 --> 00:16:42,593
Host: Why?
What do you mean, Dean?

340
00:16:42,752 --> 00:16:44,846
This kid sings better than he does
on the record, you know.

341
00:16:45,004 --> 00:16:47,553
You know it because
they were rushing him.

342
00:16:47,715 --> 00:16:49,809
And this is his first record.
They stuck him in that

343
00:16:49,967 --> 00:16:51,969
echo chamber and they
overdid it, you know.

344
00:16:52,136 --> 00:16:55,390
I think that the old man
should have been there.

345
00:16:55,556 --> 00:16:57,809
All right,
Morton Downey, Jr.,

346
00:16:57,975 --> 00:17:00,819
I only hope you'd be as famous
as your famous dad,

347
00:17:00,978 --> 00:17:02,480
'cause he was an all-time great.

348
00:17:02,647 --> 00:17:04,649
Thank you.
Morton Downey, Jr.

349
00:17:17,495 --> 00:17:21,716
Somebody sent in an old "Time" magazine
from like 1932 or '33,

350
00:17:21,874 --> 00:17:24,172
where the old man
was on the cover of "Time,"

351
00:17:24,335 --> 00:17:26,929
which is pretty cool.

352
00:17:27,088 --> 00:17:29,341
And someone mailed it
and thought he might enjoy it.

353
00:17:29,507 --> 00:17:32,386
And I gave it to Mort

354
00:17:32,552 --> 00:17:34,304
and I realized
he had some big issues there.

355
00:17:41,435 --> 00:17:43,779
He had a domineering father.

356
00:17:43,938 --> 00:17:46,361
I think he had
a real reaction to that.

357
00:17:46,524 --> 00:17:49,027
( Growling )

358
00:17:49,193 --> 00:17:50,536
<i>Mort was obsessed
with saying,</i>

359
00:17:50,695 --> 00:17:52,368
"I'm more famous
than my father.

360
00:17:52,530 --> 00:17:53,907
I'm more famous.
I'm more famous.

361
00:17:54,073 --> 00:17:55,416
I make more money.

362
00:17:55,575 --> 00:17:58,044
You know, more Americans
have seen me."

363
00:18:02,248 --> 00:18:05,843
When I came back an hour later,
it looked like confetti.

364
00:18:08,879 --> 00:18:11,223
Cornwell:
My dad was always trying to

365
00:18:11,382 --> 00:18:13,851
live up to his father, I think.

366
00:18:15,553 --> 00:18:17,055
Announcer:
If you think prime-time sitcoms

367
00:18:17,221 --> 00:18:20,475
and soaps are a snooze
and the movies bore you to tears,

368
00:18:20,641 --> 00:18:22,985
then watch the man who will
excite you and incite you,

369
00:18:23,144 --> 00:18:24,396
Morton Downey, Jr.

370
00:18:24,562 --> 00:18:27,406
Weeknights at 9:00 p.m.
on Channel Nine.

371
00:18:27,565 --> 00:18:32,321
Often, the self-destructive people
are really entertaining.

372
00:18:32,486 --> 00:18:34,488
"The Morton Downey, Jr. Show"
has been garnering

373
00:18:34,655 --> 00:18:37,033
the highest of ratings
in the New York market.

374
00:18:37,199 --> 00:18:38,917
Starting Monday,
the rest of the country

375
00:18:39,076 --> 00:18:42,125
will be able to sample
his particular brand of television.

376
00:18:42,288 --> 00:18:45,167
It happened <i>so</i> fast.

377
00:18:45,333 --> 00:18:47,711
My God, he just--
he just arrived there.

378
00:18:47,877 --> 00:18:50,926
Usually you build these things up
year after year after year.

379
00:18:51,088 --> 00:18:53,932
Morton Downey, Jr.,
just got his show syndicated.

380
00:18:54,091 --> 00:18:55,434
Well, l wish he had

381
00:18:55,593 --> 00:18:57,721
the same voice that his father had.

382
00:19:00,765 --> 00:19:03,109
Bey: He was on
all the magazine covers.

383
00:19:04,435 --> 00:19:07,735
He was an icon already

384
00:19:07,897 --> 00:19:09,945
within a matter of months.

385
00:19:13,861 --> 00:19:15,329
Koch:
I have watched this show

386
00:19:15,488 --> 00:19:17,286
and I personally
would never be on it.

387
00:19:19,325 --> 00:19:22,955
He has what you can only describe
in his audience as a lynch mob.

388
00:19:23,120 --> 00:19:25,669
This is not Oprah.
This is not Phil.

389
00:19:25,831 --> 00:19:28,175
This is Morton Downey.
Okay, let's try it again.

390
00:19:28,334 --> 00:19:29,631
Good evening, everybody!

391
00:19:29,794 --> 00:19:32,388
Welcome to
"The Morton Downey, Jr. Show"!

392
00:19:32,546 --> 00:19:34,548
David Kagan: They would let you in
a few people at a time to make sure

393
00:19:34,715 --> 00:19:36,638
they were getting a good
mix of people in each area.

394
00:19:36,801 --> 00:19:38,303
First, you cared about just
getting into the studio.

395
00:19:38,469 --> 00:19:40,062
And then you cared about
getting the good seat.

396
00:19:40,221 --> 00:19:41,848
Let's have a good time.
Let's rock and roll, you ready?

397
00:19:42,014 --> 00:19:45,143
The liberals!
That's who you're talking about.

398
00:19:45,309 --> 00:19:47,152
You needed the aisle seat
to be able to get to the mic.

399
00:19:47,311 --> 00:19:49,109
You could almost feel
your heart pounding,

400
00:19:49,271 --> 00:19:51,069
ready to go in there and, like,
mix it up with everybody.

401
00:19:52,692 --> 00:19:54,615
My dad was backstage
bouncing around,

402
00:19:54,777 --> 00:19:58,122
just getting so worked up,
just so excited.

403
00:20:03,160 --> 00:20:04,787
Well, we'd have this big

404
00:20:04,954 --> 00:20:07,673
boom, boom, boom,
drum beat, right?

405
00:20:11,627 --> 00:20:13,220
Johnson: The minute
he walked into the studio,

406
00:20:13,379 --> 00:20:15,848
it was like his cells started vibrating.

407
00:20:16,006 --> 00:20:18,350
( Cheering )

408
00:20:21,178 --> 00:20:22,680
Bey:
Morton high-fives

409
00:20:22,847 --> 00:20:25,566
the people that are closest.

410
00:20:25,725 --> 00:20:28,353
Grabs a pretty gal
and gives her a big kiss.

411
00:20:31,564 --> 00:20:33,362
That energizes him.

412
00:20:33,524 --> 00:20:37,199
That, you know,
he's taking their energy.

413
00:20:38,362 --> 00:20:41,616
Smoking cigarettes as if he
needed any more stimulation.

414
00:20:42,867 --> 00:20:45,541
And then he'd explain what the topic
was gonna be that night.

415
00:20:48,497 --> 00:20:50,966
In Shakespeare, you have
iambic pentameter.

416
00:20:51,125 --> 00:20:53,378
It follows a beat.

417
00:20:53,544 --> 00:20:55,046
But sometimes there is
something in there

418
00:20:55,212 --> 00:20:57,089
called a "caesura,"
which is a pause.

419
00:20:57,256 --> 00:20:59,224
Hey, Mom, do you know where
your teenager is tonight?

420
00:20:59,383 --> 00:21:02,182
Is he just hanging
around, huh?

421
00:21:02,344 --> 00:21:03,596
You know,
let me tell you something--

422
00:21:03,763 --> 00:21:04,889
Bey:
He wrote these pauses in

423
00:21:05,055 --> 00:21:07,183
because the audience
was going to be yelling,

424
00:21:07,349 --> 00:21:09,397
"Kill the guy!
I'm as mad as you are!"

425
00:21:09,560 --> 00:21:11,904
I'll tell you what I'd do to him.

426
00:21:12,062 --> 00:21:14,235
- Should we hang this kid?
- ( cheering )

427
00:21:14,398 --> 00:21:17,072
You betcha! Die!

428
00:21:17,234 --> 00:21:19,236
Bey:
The atmosphere was alive

429
00:21:19,403 --> 00:21:22,532
with the energy of the audience.

430
00:21:22,698 --> 00:21:24,575
Downey, Jr.:
Join us and take that chair, sir.

431
00:21:24,742 --> 00:21:26,164
-( Booing )
- No, no. No, no. No, no.

432
00:21:26,327 --> 00:21:27,920
No, no. No, no.

433
00:21:28,078 --> 00:21:29,705
I'd appreciate--
I'd appreciate not doing that.

434
00:21:29,872 --> 00:21:32,091
Johnson:
This was back when, you know,

435
00:21:32,249 --> 00:21:33,842
where else did you see Americans

436
00:21:34,001 --> 00:21:37,096
being passionate
about capital punishment?

437
00:21:37,254 --> 00:21:40,724
Every member in the audience
was happy to stand up

438
00:21:40,883 --> 00:21:43,887
at the quote, unquote, "Loudmouth"
and say his or her piece.

439
00:21:44,053 --> 00:21:45,771
I wanna know how
they would feel if somebody

440
00:21:45,930 --> 00:21:47,056
they loved were murdered.

441
00:21:47,223 --> 00:21:49,772
I feel that any murderer
deserves death immediately

442
00:21:49,934 --> 00:21:52,403
and none of this baloney.

443
00:21:52,561 --> 00:21:55,064
The law of the land is that
before we put somebody to death,

444
00:21:55,231 --> 00:21:57,450
we're going to check everything
to make sure that it's right.

445
00:21:57,608 --> 00:21:59,030
- There's another issue--
- Is that true?

446
00:21:59,193 --> 00:22:01,036
What the hell's
the other issue?

447
00:22:01,195 --> 00:22:03,948
Tell me the other issue,
you pablum-puking fink.

448
00:22:05,115 --> 00:22:07,868
Reporter: In his quest to grab
America's divided attention,

449
00:22:08,035 --> 00:22:11,915
Downey is turning unleashed rage
into unlimited ratings.

450
00:22:12,081 --> 00:22:13,924
Why is a show like that
so successful?

451
00:22:14,083 --> 00:22:16,962
Many people find his audience
quite frightening.

452
00:22:17,127 --> 00:22:18,504
It's been called "The Beast."

453
00:22:18,671 --> 00:22:20,344
People have compared it
to a crowd gathering

454
00:22:20,506 --> 00:22:21,928
at a public hanging.

455
00:22:22,091 --> 00:22:24,219
Mr. Downey, I appreciate
that you're trying

456
00:22:24,385 --> 00:22:25,511
to make a name for yourself.

457
00:22:25,678 --> 00:22:27,680
I'm not making a name,
you asshole.

458
00:22:27,847 --> 00:22:30,350
Jonathan Alter: Talk shows have
always realized studio audiences

459
00:22:30,516 --> 00:22:34,237
are important, but he's
the first one that has turned

460
00:22:34,395 --> 00:22:37,148
them from an audience into a mob.

461
00:22:37,314 --> 00:22:39,442
I am not going to bring myself,
nor the citizens--

462
00:22:39,608 --> 00:22:41,485
Then get the hell off the stage.

463
00:22:41,652 --> 00:22:44,622
Get the hell off the stage.
Get the hell out of here.

464
00:22:44,780 --> 00:22:46,999
You're a disgrace.

465
00:22:47,157 --> 00:22:49,660
You had the Roman Coliseum,
and you had the crowd saying,

466
00:22:49,827 --> 00:22:51,044
"Get out of here, you're boring."

467
00:22:51,203 --> 00:22:54,707
Downey, Jr.: if my producers think
that I have to apologize for that,

468
00:22:54,874 --> 00:22:56,672
they can go straight to hell.

469
00:22:56,834 --> 00:22:58,677
I don't apologize for anything.

470
00:23:01,088 --> 00:23:02,806
Woman: Yes, this is
"The Morton Downey, Jr. Show"

471
00:23:02,965 --> 00:23:05,844
calling to confirm your six tickets

472
00:23:06,010 --> 00:23:09,355
for tomorrow evening's
taping at 7:00.

473
00:23:09,513 --> 00:23:11,231
Reporter: You waited about, what,
two months for tickets?

474
00:23:11,390 --> 00:23:12,482
Yeah, about that.

475
00:23:12,641 --> 00:23:14,894
Lagan: We'd look outside,
you'd see people tailgating.

476
00:23:15,060 --> 00:23:16,357
I remember seeing people
snort coke

477
00:23:16,520 --> 00:23:18,238
on the hood of a car
before they came in.

478
00:23:18,397 --> 00:23:20,866
He's great. He's sexy.

479
00:23:21,025 --> 00:23:23,369
He's not afraid
to open his mouth.

480
00:23:23,527 --> 00:23:24,824
He's not afraid of anybody.

481
00:23:24,987 --> 00:23:26,864
Tom Shales, I remember,

482
00:23:27,031 --> 00:23:29,705
the famous TV critic
for the "Washington Post,"

483
00:23:29,867 --> 00:23:31,369
I thought he put it best
in one of his reviews.

484
00:23:31,535 --> 00:23:33,583
He said,
"'The Morton Downey, Jr. Show'

485
00:23:33,746 --> 00:23:35,419
is a talk show
with a hockey audience."

486
00:23:35,581 --> 00:23:37,675
Audience:
Mort, Mort, Mort, Mort.

487
00:23:39,251 --> 00:23:40,753
Downey, Jr.:
Let me introduce home base

488
00:23:40,920 --> 00:23:44,265
and of course,
our "Loudmouth."

489
00:23:44,423 --> 00:23:46,096
Shut up!

490
00:23:46,258 --> 00:23:49,888
I will not go
for any of that crap.

491
00:23:50,054 --> 00:23:52,022
Zip it a second.
Shut up!

492
00:23:52,181 --> 00:23:55,060
What are you laughing about?
Just take the pictures.

493
00:23:55,225 --> 00:23:58,399
♪ Mighty mouth,
they say he's not kind... ♪

494
00:23:58,562 --> 00:24:00,735
Halloween evening on
"The Morton Downey, Jr. Show."

495
00:24:00,898 --> 00:24:02,741
Should they go?

496
00:24:02,900 --> 00:24:04,777
Lloyd Kaufman:
I saw the audience

497
00:24:04,944 --> 00:24:06,867
and the audience
was pretty frightening.

498
00:24:07,029 --> 00:24:08,155
I was physically hurt,

499
00:24:08,322 --> 00:24:10,620
various neck and back injuries.

500
00:24:10,783 --> 00:24:13,081
There was clearly
a physical assault on us.

501
00:24:13,243 --> 00:24:15,541
I was then known
as the "Secaucus Slammer"...

502
00:24:17,373 --> 00:24:19,876
six years before
"The Jerry Springer Show."

503
00:24:22,920 --> 00:24:24,422
Jerry Springer's not like Mort.

504
00:24:24,588 --> 00:24:26,306
He don't got no backbone
like Mort had.

505
00:24:26,465 --> 00:24:28,593
Mort would go right up in
somebody's face and confront him.

506
00:24:28,759 --> 00:24:31,603
You who traitored
on the United States.

507
00:24:31,762 --> 00:24:32,979
You traitor!

508
00:24:33,138 --> 00:24:34,856
Giegold: This studio
was the first in the business

509
00:24:35,015 --> 00:24:37,564
to put people
through a metal detector.

510
00:24:37,726 --> 00:24:39,820
Goldsmith: At the end of the night,
you'd say to the guys,

511
00:24:39,979 --> 00:24:42,107
"How are you doing?"
"Well, <i>we</i> got like 16 knives."

512
00:24:42,272 --> 00:24:43,819
- 16 knives?
- Brass knuckles.

513
00:24:43,983 --> 00:24:46,702
Brass knuckles. Who brings
that stuff to a television show?

514
00:24:46,860 --> 00:24:48,453
They were ready
for some controversy.

515
00:24:50,781 --> 00:24:53,625
If you guys and that other--
the gremlin over there

516
00:24:53,784 --> 00:24:56,128
like Japan so much,
you can take this flag

517
00:24:56,286 --> 00:24:58,334
and shove it where it belongs.

518
00:24:58,497 --> 00:25:00,295
It was also sort of perfect
for 17-year-olds

519
00:25:00,457 --> 00:25:02,459
because it had no nuance at all.

520
00:25:02,626 --> 00:25:05,300
Everything was black or white,
and 17-year-olds--

521
00:25:05,462 --> 00:25:07,556
Forget those pablum-pukers!

522
00:25:09,174 --> 00:25:10,642
Rothman: Everything
is either totally one thing

523
00:25:10,801 --> 00:25:12,849
or totally the other.
There is no middle.

524
00:25:13,012 --> 00:25:15,640
We are America.
We're number one!

525
00:25:15,806 --> 00:25:17,228
You know what I think?
I think Donald Trump

526
00:25:17,391 --> 00:25:20,520
should take his board game
and just go to hell.

527
00:25:22,396 --> 00:25:25,491
Stu Stein: Kids today can make
a goofy YouTube video.

528
00:25:25,649 --> 00:25:30,029
I got an American car
and it still runs just fine. Just fine.

529
00:25:30,195 --> 00:25:32,493
Stick it up on YouTube,
get 10,000 hits, goes viral,

530
00:25:32,656 --> 00:25:34,829
and now they're, you know,
the flavor of the day.

531
00:25:34,992 --> 00:25:37,120
Let's face it,
we did it to ourselves, Mort.

532
00:25:37,286 --> 00:25:39,209
Stein: Whereas in our case,
it was very simple.

533
00:25:39,371 --> 00:25:40,748
Japan's gonna rule, Mort.

534
00:25:40,914 --> 00:25:42,837
Just go on TV, pretend
you're somebody you're not,

535
00:25:43,000 --> 00:25:44,593
and you got on TV
for five minutes.

536
00:25:44,752 --> 00:25:45,844
- Zip it!
- Damn right, Mort!

537
00:25:46,003 --> 00:25:47,550
And if Elvis was alive,
why don't you book him

538
00:25:47,713 --> 00:25:49,807
on "The Morton Downey, Jr.
Show" once?

539
00:25:52,217 --> 00:25:53,514
Cornwell:
I don't want to say it was a cult

540
00:25:53,677 --> 00:25:55,350
'cause it wasn't a cult,

541
00:25:55,512 --> 00:25:57,139
but where did these people
come from?

542
00:25:57,306 --> 00:25:58,307
Go ahead, pal.

543
00:25:58,474 --> 00:26:00,602
My name is Joseph McBratney
and I'd like to speak

544
00:26:00,768 --> 00:26:03,567
to these two very ignorant men
right here.

545
00:26:03,729 --> 00:26:05,731
Bey:
It's shot in Secaucus.

546
00:26:06,899 --> 00:26:09,903
The Jersey characters
are in that audience.

547
00:26:10,069 --> 00:26:11,696
Why?
Why make it worse?

548
00:26:11,862 --> 00:26:14,035
They don't give a shit.

549
00:26:14,198 --> 00:26:16,667
"Real Housewives of New Jersey"
and "Jersey Shore"...

550
00:26:16,825 --> 00:26:18,418
I'm not better than anyone.
That's not what I'm saying.

551
00:26:18,577 --> 00:26:22,207
Bey: ...use this very same
confidence, assertion...

552
00:26:22,372 --> 00:26:23,999
Black, white,
or Puerto Rican.

553
00:26:24,166 --> 00:26:26,464
Bey: ...that you find
in the Jersey character.

554
00:26:26,627 --> 00:26:28,129
We ought to get out and vote,
change it,

555
00:26:28,295 --> 00:26:30,593
and get these guys out of there
and do what we gotta do.

556
00:26:30,756 --> 00:26:32,474
Bey:
But before this you never saw--

557
00:26:32,633 --> 00:26:35,227
unless they were
on "Candid Camera"...

558
00:26:35,385 --> 00:26:37,183
I just don't believe
that anyone like that

559
00:26:37,346 --> 00:26:39,223
has the right to breathe
the same air that I do.

560
00:26:39,389 --> 00:26:41,892
...real, real people
on television.

561
00:26:42,059 --> 00:26:43,356
...against American policies,

562
00:26:43,519 --> 00:26:45,487
get the hell out of America
if you don't like it.

563
00:26:45,646 --> 00:26:47,023
Downey, Jr.:
This is the beginning...

564
00:26:47,189 --> 00:26:49,863
We've decriminalized cocaine.

565
00:26:50,025 --> 00:26:51,493
Downey, Jr.:
...of a great movement...

566
00:26:51,652 --> 00:26:53,074
You're despicable.
You're a piece of shit.

567
00:26:53,237 --> 00:26:54,659
Downey, Jr.: ...of the people
of this country...

568
00:26:54,822 --> 00:26:55,914
I don't sell my body.

569
00:26:56,073 --> 00:26:58,826
Downey, Jr.: ...taking this country
back to ourselves, all right?

570
00:26:58,992 --> 00:27:01,040
You have no remorse
right now!

571
00:27:01,203 --> 00:27:03,752
We've sent those people
to Washington.

572
00:27:03,914 --> 00:27:06,008
They haven't done squat for us.

573
00:27:06,166 --> 00:27:08,043
Mort, I must tell you,
you've made at least half a dozen

574
00:27:08,210 --> 00:27:10,304
converts in our control room.

575
00:27:10,462 --> 00:27:13,181
Rise up, America!
Rise up!

576
00:27:13,340 --> 00:27:15,684
It's clearly entertaining as hell.

577
00:27:15,843 --> 00:27:17,811
Beyond that, what is it?

578
00:27:17,970 --> 00:27:21,725
I'm after establishing a platform
for the American

579
00:27:21,890 --> 00:27:23,892
who has been unheard
by his government.

580
00:27:24,059 --> 00:27:25,231
Good to see you.
How you doing?

581
00:27:25,394 --> 00:27:27,647
- I watch you every night, buddy.
- Thank you, pal.

582
00:27:27,813 --> 00:27:30,282
Allred:
He saw himself as...

583
00:27:30,440 --> 00:27:32,067
- Hi. Nice to meet you.
- Hi, how are you?

584
00:27:32,234 --> 00:27:36,831
Allred: ...representative
of the working man

585
00:27:36,989 --> 00:27:40,163
and that he should be the évocateur
who understood their emotions

586
00:27:40,325 --> 00:27:43,829
and who helped to express
their emotions.

587
00:27:45,164 --> 00:27:46,916
Director: Your right ear.
That's good.

588
00:27:47,082 --> 00:27:49,835
Someone like me could be
a frightening person.

589
00:27:50,002 --> 00:27:52,755
Someone like you could be
a frightening person.

590
00:27:52,921 --> 00:27:54,514
Most of us, of course,
are just average,

591
00:27:54,673 --> 00:27:56,596
everyday human beings
like my audience is

592
00:27:56,758 --> 00:28:00,558
and we hope that the politicians
become frightened of us.

593
00:28:03,223 --> 00:28:06,272
Melody Miller: I knew
Morton Downey, Jr. as Sean.

594
00:28:06,435 --> 00:28:10,110
He didn't use his father's name
when I knew him in the '60s.

595
00:28:17,863 --> 00:28:20,036
( Silent )

596
00:28:20,199 --> 00:28:22,497
On Cape Cod,
Morton Downey, Sr.,

597
00:28:22,659 --> 00:28:24,036
had a house out on Squaw Island,

598
00:28:24,203 --> 00:28:26,956
which was a hop, skip, and a jump
from the Kennedy compound.

599
00:28:36,381 --> 00:28:38,975
Reporter: That is Morton Downey,
the Irish tenor,

600
00:28:39,134 --> 00:28:40,477
talking to Mrs. Kennedy.

601
00:28:40,636 --> 00:28:43,139
Morton Downey has been a friend
of the Kennedy family for years.

602
00:28:43,305 --> 00:28:46,900
Schoonmaker: So Mort grew up
with some of the younger Kennedys.

603
00:28:47,059 --> 00:28:49,903
Reporter: Now Morton Downey
is talking with the President.

604
00:28:51,230 --> 00:28:52,823
Brother Robert, Attorney General,

605
00:28:52,981 --> 00:28:55,609
next to Morton Downey there.

606
00:28:55,776 --> 00:28:57,904
Miller:
When Robert Kennedy died,

607
00:28:58,070 --> 00:29:00,414
there were so many different ways
people expressed their grief.

608
00:29:01,949 --> 00:29:06,170
Sean expressed his by writing
his small little book of poetry.

609
00:29:07,496 --> 00:29:10,420
Its title was "Quiet Thoughts
Make the Loudest Noise."

610
00:29:10,582 --> 00:29:13,461
I thought that was a rather
interesting title.

611
00:29:13,627 --> 00:29:15,925
Cornwell:
He was always writing poems.

612
00:29:16,088 --> 00:29:18,557
His brain was always going
constantly.

613
00:29:20,175 --> 00:29:23,554
You know, it was hard for him
to just chill.

614
00:29:29,935 --> 00:29:33,940
"Row upon row
of grief-wracked followers,

615
00:29:34,106 --> 00:29:38,452
sunken cheeks replacing
their years-ago happy faces,

616
00:29:38,610 --> 00:29:41,534
sang proudly
for their departed friend,

617
00:29:41,697 --> 00:29:43,290
their final hope;

618
00:29:43,448 --> 00:29:47,203
and wondered why a man
must die to be a hero;

619
00:29:47,369 --> 00:29:49,542
and whether we honor only those

620
00:29:49,705 --> 00:29:52,049
our own selfish hearts destroy."

621
00:29:55,085 --> 00:29:56,632
This is the reception room

622
00:29:56,795 --> 00:30:00,720
and Sean is talking
to Joan Kennedy,

623
00:30:00,882 --> 00:30:02,884
Ted Kennedy's wife.

624
00:30:03,051 --> 00:30:04,268
I'm there in the background

625
00:30:04,428 --> 00:30:06,851
talking with someone on the phone.

626
00:30:07,014 --> 00:30:09,483
Sean, as usual,
was very well dressed.

627
00:30:09,641 --> 00:30:12,986
Sartorial splendor
was one of his attributes.

628
00:30:15,314 --> 00:30:17,567
We had the election
for Edward Kennedy

629
00:30:17,733 --> 00:30:20,782
to become majority whip
in the Senate.

630
00:30:20,944 --> 00:30:23,288
And this is the moment
we got word that he won.

631
00:30:23,447 --> 00:30:24,915
( Cheering )

632
00:30:25,073 --> 00:30:27,246
There's Sean in the background.

633
00:30:29,828 --> 00:30:33,674
Right here is the senator
addressing all of us,

634
00:30:33,832 --> 00:30:36,802
Sean standing in the doorway
smiling at him.

635
00:30:38,170 --> 00:30:39,843
He supported the issues
that Senator Kennedy

636
00:30:40,005 --> 00:30:41,382
was supportive of.

637
00:30:41,548 --> 00:30:44,347
So he was liberal
on a number of things.

638
00:30:47,763 --> 00:30:50,357
It was hard to understand,
really, how you could have been

639
00:30:50,515 --> 00:30:52,313
so for Robert and Edward Kennedy

640
00:30:52,476 --> 00:30:56,401
and then be so much
against their positions.

641
00:30:56,563 --> 00:30:59,863
I was kind of in a quandary.

642
00:31:00,025 --> 00:31:03,370
He was a surrogate
for an awful lot of people

643
00:31:03,528 --> 00:31:06,623
in representing their views
and their attitudes.

644
00:31:08,909 --> 00:31:11,879
Good evening, class.

645
00:31:12,037 --> 00:31:14,916
All:
Good evening, Mr. Downey.

646
00:31:16,375 --> 00:31:18,048
Buchanan:
A lot of working-class folks...

647
00:31:18,210 --> 00:31:20,429
Hey, welcome to your
American history lesson, gang.

648
00:31:20,587 --> 00:31:23,887
Buchanan: ...have a desire
for a conservative point of view.

649
00:31:24,049 --> 00:31:26,017
Sure as hell ain't attended one
like this one tonight.

650
00:31:26,176 --> 00:31:29,100
They want to hear it because
this is what they believe.

651
00:31:29,262 --> 00:31:32,141
The liberal policies
of the Democratic Party

652
00:31:32,307 --> 00:31:34,059
have failed for 40 years.

653
00:31:36,103 --> 00:31:38,652
He did fulfill a desire
of an awful lot of people

654
00:31:38,814 --> 00:31:39,940
'cause he got a huge audience.

655
00:31:40,107 --> 00:31:41,404
We're not leaving,

656
00:31:41,566 --> 00:31:43,239
so if you don't like
the Pledge of Allegiance

657
00:31:43,402 --> 00:31:45,404
and you don't like
prayer, you leave.

658
00:31:45,570 --> 00:31:47,038
We're proud of this flag.

659
00:31:47,197 --> 00:31:49,746
Buchanan:
Hannity, O'Reilly, Glenn Beck...

660
00:31:49,908 --> 00:31:52,081
You can kiss my flag!

661
00:31:53,412 --> 00:31:56,165
They're not as crude
as Mort was.

662
00:31:56,331 --> 00:31:59,130
But they are appealing
to that same audience.

663
00:32:00,752 --> 00:32:03,426
You talk about the Tea Party today.

664
00:32:03,588 --> 00:32:05,932
Some of those working-class folks
are exactly the people

665
00:32:06,091 --> 00:32:08,435
to whom he appealed--

666
00:32:08,593 --> 00:32:12,939
the angry voices
of people left behind.

667
00:32:15,809 --> 00:32:17,561
Stanley Crouch:
You see on these shows,

668
00:32:17,727 --> 00:32:19,946
"We're already mad."

669
00:32:20,105 --> 00:32:22,278
That's why the system
is all bottled up.

670
00:32:22,441 --> 00:32:24,443
"You might not be...

671
00:32:24,609 --> 00:32:27,112
but by the end of this hour,
you'll be one of us."

672
00:32:27,279 --> 00:32:30,078
Stephen Kruiser:
This is a protracted battle, okay?

673
00:32:30,240 --> 00:32:32,789
The left views politics as war

674
00:32:32,951 --> 00:32:35,420
and they are engaged 24/7,

675
00:32:35,579 --> 00:32:37,581
their foot is on the gas pedal 24/7.

676
00:32:37,747 --> 00:32:40,626
You're not going to convert
a left-wing rally, okay?

677
00:32:40,792 --> 00:32:43,136
But you can convert people
individually.

678
00:32:43,295 --> 00:32:45,548
Crouch: That's where
the Morton Downeys come in.

679
00:32:49,092 --> 00:32:52,266
They have an anger
that's so magnetic...

680
00:32:52,429 --> 00:32:54,807
From Goldman Sachs
to Merrill Lynch

681
00:32:54,973 --> 00:32:57,192
who stole from us,
the taxpayers.

682
00:32:57,350 --> 00:33:00,445
Crouch:
...it will just pull you to it.

683
00:33:00,604 --> 00:33:02,481
This is "The Herman Cain Show"

684
00:33:02,647 --> 00:33:06,072
live from Las Vegas, Nevada.

685
00:33:06,234 --> 00:33:08,612
Audiences react to conflict.

686
00:33:08,778 --> 00:33:11,076
More people will tune in
if you've got conflict.

687
00:33:11,239 --> 00:33:13,867
And villains lend themselves
and vilifying people

688
00:33:14,034 --> 00:33:16,412
lends itself to attracting
a large audience.

689
00:33:16,578 --> 00:33:19,502
The liberals,
they are frustrated

690
00:33:19,664 --> 00:33:23,840
because they can't find a head
to this movement

691
00:33:24,002 --> 00:33:25,970
to cut off so they can kill it.

692
00:33:26,129 --> 00:33:29,224
There's a fine line
between passion and anger.

693
00:33:29,382 --> 00:33:32,135
We are going to repeal Obama-care.

694
00:33:32,302 --> 00:33:35,977
Don't lose hope. Don't lose faith.
We're gonna do it.

695
00:33:36,139 --> 00:33:39,143
Cain:
Repeal that sucka!

696
00:33:39,309 --> 00:33:43,155
Every once in a while,
you smile to let 'em know

697
00:33:43,313 --> 00:33:45,941
that you ain't mad at nobody.

698
00:33:46,107 --> 00:33:47,825
You just passionate, that's all.

699
00:33:47,984 --> 00:33:50,328
We want to reach more people.
We want to communicate with more people.

700
00:33:50,487 --> 00:33:52,330
We want to change
hearts and minds out there.

701
00:33:52,489 --> 00:33:54,162
Skip Murphy:
As long as you're up front about it,

702
00:33:54,324 --> 00:33:56,122
that you're not trying
to tell your audience

703
00:33:56,284 --> 00:34:00,005
you're one thing and then
you're actually something else.

704
00:34:00,163 --> 00:34:02,586
Isn't this typical

705
00:34:02,749 --> 00:34:05,844
of a left-wing
pablum-puking jerk?

706
00:34:06,002 --> 00:34:08,505
Your critics would say
that your popularity is based

707
00:34:08,672 --> 00:34:10,766
on the fact that you're appealing
to the worst elements

708
00:34:10,924 --> 00:34:12,767
- of human nature--
- I totally disagree with that.

709
00:34:12,926 --> 00:34:16,100
Gumbel: --to jealousy, to anger,
to pettiness.

710
00:34:17,639 --> 00:34:20,609
Morton Downey is
in the business of implicitly

711
00:34:20,767 --> 00:34:23,361
selling hatred and people are buying it.

712
00:34:23,520 --> 00:34:25,864
Well, is there something
in the nature of television

713
00:34:26,022 --> 00:34:28,696
that calls forth characters
like this periodically?

714
00:34:28,858 --> 00:34:31,236
Only a few generations
have been granted the role

715
00:34:31,403 --> 00:34:34,828
of defending freedom
in its maximum hour of danger.

716
00:34:34,990 --> 00:34:37,038
Uh, yeah, ratings.

717
00:34:37,200 --> 00:34:38,952
You are that generation.

718
00:34:39,119 --> 00:34:41,998
That is your role.
This is that moment.

719
00:34:45,041 --> 00:34:47,169
Bey:
There's always been a longing

720
00:34:47,335 --> 00:34:50,885
among, you know, some portion
of the American public

721
00:34:51,047 --> 00:34:53,891
for somebody
who speaks for them.

722
00:34:54,050 --> 00:34:58,180
♪ O'er the land of the free... ♪

723
00:34:58,346 --> 00:35:00,849
Bey:
If you speak for these people

724
00:35:01,016 --> 00:35:04,316
and allow them to speak their mind...

725
00:35:04,477 --> 00:35:06,400
♪ And the home of the brave. ♪

726
00:35:06,563 --> 00:35:08,031
Bey:
...they love you for it.

727
00:35:08,189 --> 00:35:10,066
Announcer: Morton Downey,
our national anthem.

728
00:35:10,233 --> 00:35:12,986
Of course, his father,
a great Irish tenor.

729
00:35:15,697 --> 00:35:18,541
Let me ask you, has your dad
ever sang the national anthem?

730
00:35:18,700 --> 00:35:20,373
Uh, yeah, Pop sang
the national anthem

731
00:35:20,535 --> 00:35:22,128
at the Democratic
National Convention,

732
00:35:22,287 --> 00:35:24,415
God bless him,
and I'm sorry that he sang it

733
00:35:24,581 --> 00:35:26,959
at the Democratic Convention.
Too bad it wasn't the Republican.

734
00:35:29,127 --> 00:35:31,926
I mean, how did this happen?
Gosh, it's disappointing.

735
00:35:32,088 --> 00:35:33,761
I think Senator Kennedy
was disappointed.

736
00:35:33,923 --> 00:35:35,550
He was kind of put off.

737
00:35:35,717 --> 00:35:38,186
( Theme music playing )

738
00:35:38,345 --> 00:35:40,518
Sean would call up and say,
"Did you see the show?"

739
00:35:40,680 --> 00:35:42,933
And I would say, you know,
"Ed and I disagreed

740
00:35:43,099 --> 00:35:45,101
with everything
you said almost."

741
00:35:46,770 --> 00:35:50,866
He would say
that he had just "evolved."

742
00:35:53,610 --> 00:35:54,953
Cornwell: He worked
for many, many years

743
00:35:55,111 --> 00:35:57,409
trying to find his niche,

744
00:35:57,572 --> 00:35:59,950
figure out where he fit.

745
00:36:00,116 --> 00:36:02,244
( Pinging )

746
00:36:02,410 --> 00:36:05,380
I remember from the time
I was a little kid,

747
00:36:05,538 --> 00:36:07,131
him always wanting to sing.

748
00:36:11,795 --> 00:36:14,093
Schoonmaker:
We started a group called Turquoise.

749
00:36:14,255 --> 00:36:16,599
It was just he and I.

750
00:36:16,758 --> 00:36:18,635
And, uh, <i>we</i> did a song

751
00:36:18,802 --> 00:36:20,304
called "Lonely Man."

752
00:36:20,470 --> 00:36:22,939
♪ Hello, lonely man ♪

753
00:36:23,098 --> 00:36:26,477
♪ Sitting all alone ♪

754
00:36:26,643 --> 00:36:29,442
♪ In your thick-walled home... ♪

755
00:36:29,604 --> 00:36:31,106
Schoonmaker:
We had our little single

756
00:36:31,272 --> 00:36:33,400
and jumped in his van...

757
00:36:33,566 --> 00:36:35,284
♪ See him light a star ♪

758
00:36:35,443 --> 00:36:38,993
♪ And take a spaceship
to the moon... ♪

759
00:36:39,155 --> 00:36:42,876
Schoonmaker: ...traveled all through
California going to radio stations.

760
00:36:45,286 --> 00:36:47,755
And they're playing the thing.

761
00:36:47,914 --> 00:36:50,463
We had a great time.
It was a hell of a trip.

762
00:36:53,128 --> 00:36:56,598
I can't really say that he was
conservative or liberal.

763
00:36:57,966 --> 00:36:59,639
( Coughing )

764
00:36:59,801 --> 00:37:02,475
He would seem to go
in either direction.

765
00:37:07,642 --> 00:37:09,895
Whatever seemed to work
at the time.

766
00:37:12,021 --> 00:37:14,820
Mort wasn't gay or anything,
but on the road

767
00:37:14,983 --> 00:37:17,111
Lloyd would actually sleep
in the same bed with Mort

768
00:37:17,277 --> 00:37:19,371
just to keep him company.
But they're totally straight.

769
00:37:19,529 --> 00:37:21,372
( Crickets chirping )

770
00:37:21,531 --> 00:37:24,410
Schoonmaker:
He really attached himself to me.

771
00:37:25,577 --> 00:37:28,706
I was something
he could hang onto,

772
00:37:28,872 --> 00:37:30,670
almost like his blanket.

773
00:37:32,542 --> 00:37:34,510
Cornwell:
He just was always looking

774
00:37:34,669 --> 00:37:39,140
for acceptance and for love.

775
00:37:40,633 --> 00:37:44,388
♪ I got a right to live... ♪

776
00:37:44,554 --> 00:37:47,558
Reynolds:
He had a record

777
00:37:47,724 --> 00:37:49,567
and he was touting it.

778
00:37:49,726 --> 00:37:51,194
He came to Syracuse, New York--

779
00:37:51,352 --> 00:37:53,855
I was a young disc jockey--

780
00:37:54,022 --> 00:37:56,275
and he was a character and a half.

781
00:37:56,441 --> 00:37:58,785
And I said, "Why don't you come do
the morning show?"

782
00:37:58,943 --> 00:38:01,071
And he took the job
as the morning man.

783
00:38:01,237 --> 00:38:03,285
Downey, Jr.: Tough type of Thursday
on the Mad Lad Swing-a-Thing,

784
00:38:03,448 --> 00:38:07,749
Morton Downey with you till 8:00,
"Our Everlasting Love."

785
00:38:07,911 --> 00:38:10,460
Reynolds:
We were doing Top 40 radio

786
00:38:10,622 --> 00:38:13,375
and we were talking a lot
about people who were

787
00:38:13,541 --> 00:38:14,758
acting out on television.

788
00:38:14,918 --> 00:38:17,262
Do what you want.
You wanna walk away?

789
00:38:17,420 --> 00:38:19,798
He and I had a little chat
about Joe Pyne.

790
00:38:19,964 --> 00:38:22,717
Remember Joe Pyne?

791
00:38:22,884 --> 00:38:25,262
We thought he was a jerk--

792
00:38:25,428 --> 00:38:28,398
a successful jerk.

793
00:38:28,556 --> 00:38:30,934
He got everybody's attention.

794
00:38:31,100 --> 00:38:34,070
We've got to get involved.
We've got to get our hands dirty.

795
00:38:34,229 --> 00:38:36,357
The only thing that we can do

796
00:38:36,523 --> 00:38:39,402
to save these unborn children.

797
00:38:39,567 --> 00:38:42,537
Reynolds: Downey decided
that if he could be the person

798
00:38:42,695 --> 00:38:44,948
who was outrageous, controversial,

799
00:38:45,114 --> 00:38:46,582
he would get the most attention.

800
00:38:46,741 --> 00:38:49,039
( Cheering )

801
00:38:49,202 --> 00:38:51,455
He was on the air and he started
taking phone calls

802
00:38:51,621 --> 00:38:52,838
and arguing with people.

803
00:38:52,997 --> 00:38:58,754
Downey, Jr.: The Democratic Party
is opposed to life.

804
00:38:58,920 --> 00:39:01,764
After he saw the way people
were reacting and acting,

805
00:39:01,923 --> 00:39:04,676
he catered to it to be bigger
and more popular.

806
00:39:07,428 --> 00:39:08,930
Goldsmith: You have reversed
the position you took

807
00:39:09,097 --> 00:39:11,395
only six months ago.
What caused you to come around?

808
00:39:11,558 --> 00:39:13,777
I really want to see
how they respond, all right?

809
00:39:13,935 --> 00:39:15,187
Goldsmith:
He would go over the show with me.

810
00:39:15,353 --> 00:39:16,445
He'd go in the cafeteria
and eat his food.

811
00:39:16,604 --> 00:39:18,527
Okay, segment one,
you got your segment one card?

812
00:39:18,690 --> 00:39:20,988
- ( Coughing )
- Poor Jimmy.

813
00:39:21,150 --> 00:39:22,447
Get a raincoat for Jim.

814
00:39:22,610 --> 00:39:24,157
With a bottle-- every meal
was a bottle of ketchup.

815
00:39:24,320 --> 00:39:25,947
Langan: And put the cigarette out
in the mashed potatoes.

816
00:39:26,114 --> 00:39:27,787
Exactly, and then he'd say,
"Okay, tell me the story.

817
00:39:27,949 --> 00:39:28,950
What's this show tonight?"

818
00:39:29,117 --> 00:39:31,961
I understand they're talking
about taking the new housing--

819
00:39:32,120 --> 00:39:33,337
the low-income housing--

820
00:39:33,496 --> 00:39:35,840
and placing it in the middle-class
neighborhoods. Am I correct?

821
00:39:35,999 --> 00:39:38,843
Goldsmith:
Mort had an audio graphic memory.

822
00:39:39,002 --> 00:39:42,131
Everything in the northeast
is lily-white.

823
00:39:42,297 --> 00:39:44,391
Two on stage, three on Mort.

824
00:39:44,549 --> 00:39:48,554
When you're living in
lily-white Pound Ridge?

825
00:39:48,720 --> 00:39:51,189
Goldsmith: When he went on the set,
he would repeat verbatim...

826
00:39:51,347 --> 00:39:52,894
The obvious question here is

827
00:39:53,057 --> 00:39:56,652
does the opposition to the NAACP
suit represent an attempt

828
00:39:56,811 --> 00:39:58,984
to keep blacks
out of white neighborhoods?

829
00:39:59,147 --> 00:40:01,275
Goldsmith: ...what we had told him
two hours before.

830
00:40:01,441 --> 00:40:03,193
Downey, Jr.:
The obvious question here

831
00:40:03,359 --> 00:40:05,111
is does the opposition
to the NAACP

832
00:40:05,278 --> 00:40:08,703
represent an attempt to keep blacks
out of white neighborhoods?

833
00:40:08,865 --> 00:40:10,242
No, uh, you see...

834
00:40:10,408 --> 00:40:13,161
We would figure out, "Okay, this is
gonna be your position on this topic."

835
00:40:13,328 --> 00:40:15,376
How come none of those
wealthy neighborhoods

836
00:40:15,538 --> 00:40:16,585
get some of that housing?

837
00:40:16,748 --> 00:40:19,592
Then he would go out there and argue
that position like nobody else.

838
00:40:19,751 --> 00:40:22,550
There are 200,000 units,
all right?

839
00:40:22,712 --> 00:40:24,055
Units available in New York City

840
00:40:24,213 --> 00:40:25,760
that are run-down,
that are beat up.

841
00:40:25,924 --> 00:40:26,925
- Maybe, maybe.
- No, not maybe.

842
00:40:27,091 --> 00:40:28,263
It was a great act.

843
00:40:28,426 --> 00:40:31,054
Oh, please tell me
because you look homeless.

844
00:40:31,220 --> 00:40:33,689
If you're gonna make fun of me, Mort,
I don't have to be on your show.

845
00:40:33,848 --> 00:40:36,226
You don't? Good. Good night.
Good night. Good night!

846
00:40:36,392 --> 00:40:38,235
Goldsmith:
Mort was arguing with a guy

847
00:40:38,394 --> 00:40:41,398
and then I'm between the two
of them and this guy was furious.

848
00:40:41,564 --> 00:40:44,363
Get out of here!

849
00:40:44,525 --> 00:40:45,868
Johnson:
It was almost like he was

850
00:40:46,027 --> 00:40:48,075
spitting on you when he was
yelling at you sometimes.

851
00:40:49,739 --> 00:40:51,741
Goldsmith: The guy's furious.
He believes this is gonna happen,

852
00:40:51,908 --> 00:40:53,751
that he's gonna fight with Mort.

853
00:40:53,910 --> 00:40:55,332
We walked out the studio,
the three of us.

854
00:40:55,495 --> 00:40:58,214
We get outside.
Mort goes, "You did a great job."

855
00:41:06,422 --> 00:41:07,924
Cornwell:
There were times where

856
00:41:08,091 --> 00:41:09,718
I would hate to watch the show

857
00:41:09,884 --> 00:41:13,559
because it was so... violent.

858
00:41:20,520 --> 00:41:23,820
I didn't like seeing
that side of him, I guess,

859
00:41:23,982 --> 00:41:27,282
because that's not the person
I was raised with.

860
00:41:29,737 --> 00:41:32,331
He was never like that

861
00:41:32,490 --> 00:41:33,992
unless he was on camera.

862
00:41:42,834 --> 00:41:45,758
Langan:
He played "the angry populist."

863
00:41:45,920 --> 00:41:47,422
Johnson:
We call it "populism" sometimes.

864
00:41:47,588 --> 00:41:49,807
I really think it's more envy.

865
00:41:53,803 --> 00:41:55,601
All cultures are basically pyramids

866
00:41:55,763 --> 00:41:58,312
and there are
very few people on the top.

867
00:41:58,474 --> 00:42:00,818
And all the people
on the bottom are kind of angry.

868
00:42:04,856 --> 00:42:06,483
"Why am I not a star?
Why am I not--?"

869
00:42:06,649 --> 00:42:09,493
"The reason I'm not a star
is because the system screwed me."

870
00:42:09,652 --> 00:42:11,654
Exactly, it's the system.
It's not me.

871
00:42:11,821 --> 00:42:13,789
Yeah, it's "the man" kept--
held me down.

872
00:42:13,948 --> 00:42:16,167
- Right, exactly.
- And Mort tapped into that.

873
00:42:16,325 --> 00:42:18,999
Once you've decided on the act

874
00:42:19,162 --> 00:42:21,961
and once you've written down
the confines of the act,

875
00:42:22,123 --> 00:42:25,047
if you stand out and say
"I'm a tree" long enough,

876
00:42:25,209 --> 00:42:26,677
you get leaves.

877
00:42:26,836 --> 00:42:29,134
You have been described
as a nice guy who pretends to be

878
00:42:29,297 --> 00:42:31,800
a right-wing maniac.

879
00:42:31,966 --> 00:42:34,389
Now, what do you find offensive
with that statement?

880
00:42:34,552 --> 00:42:37,101
The word "pretend."

881
00:42:37,263 --> 00:42:40,813
Buchanan: He did not look
like the child of a Hollywood star.

882
00:42:40,975 --> 00:42:43,899
He came off, quite frankly,
as authentic.

883
00:42:44,062 --> 00:42:46,485
This is what you do
in show business.

884
00:42:46,647 --> 00:42:49,526
I mean,
you got people riled up.

885
00:42:49,692 --> 00:42:52,366
It was an act, just the way
Sean Hannity is an act, you know.

886
00:42:52,528 --> 00:42:54,872
But I was an act, too,

887
00:42:55,031 --> 00:42:57,750
you know, to some degree.

888
00:42:57,909 --> 00:43:01,630
You know, I mean...

889
00:43:01,788 --> 00:43:03,210
it's television.

890
00:43:05,374 --> 00:43:08,002
You are what people
perceive you are, all right?

891
00:43:08,169 --> 00:43:10,797
If you believe I'm a phony,
that's entirely up to you.

892
00:43:10,963 --> 00:43:12,385
I know I'm telling the truth.

893
00:43:12,548 --> 00:43:13,891
I know that I tell
the truth about myself.

894
00:43:14,050 --> 00:43:15,472
I bet you can't stand
in the same mirror

895
00:43:15,635 --> 00:43:18,013
I've stood in, baby.
I bet you can't.

896
00:43:27,105 --> 00:43:28,778
"Hello there, big shot,

897
00:43:28,940 --> 00:43:31,864
makin' out you got
what you ain't got."

898
00:43:32,026 --> 00:43:33,448
( buzzing )

899
00:43:33,611 --> 00:43:36,785
"Puttin' on an act
that even fools yourself.

900
00:43:36,948 --> 00:43:39,246
People detest you.

901
00:43:40,576 --> 00:43:44,046
You are nothing but a mirror
of your own inflated ego.

902
00:43:45,331 --> 00:43:47,254
(water bubbling )

903
00:43:47,416 --> 00:43:50,841
We go through life
staring at the self-same glass.

904
00:43:51,003 --> 00:43:53,097
What an ass."

905
00:43:53,256 --> 00:43:55,179
Elliott:
"Gold watch, gold rings,

906
00:43:55,341 --> 00:43:57,560
fuchsia, and fur things;

907
00:43:57,718 --> 00:43:59,391
if your countenance shines so bright,

908
00:43:59,554 --> 00:44:02,524
why the tinsel reflecting your light?

909
00:44:02,682 --> 00:44:03,979
Look again, fool.

910
00:44:04,142 --> 00:44:07,487
It falls to a narrowing shadow
at your sidewalk-clicking heels."

911
00:44:07,645 --> 00:44:09,864
( applause )

912
00:44:13,151 --> 00:44:15,574
"How sad the looking glass,

913
00:44:15,736 --> 00:44:17,830
that, empty, stares back

914
00:44:17,989 --> 00:44:20,663
and echoes,

915
00:44:20,825 --> 00:44:23,248
'Hello, big shot."'

916
00:44:24,287 --> 00:44:26,506
( audience chanting )
Chris, Chris, Chris!

917
00:44:33,171 --> 00:44:35,424
(sighs )

918
00:44:38,259 --> 00:44:39,260
I'm okay.

919
00:44:39,427 --> 00:44:42,351
All right, we've got quite a topic
for you tonight, folks.

920
00:44:42,513 --> 00:44:44,436
This one's hot.
Say hello to David Letterman.

921
00:44:44,599 --> 00:44:46,943
-( Booing )
- All right, give him a chance.

922
00:44:47,101 --> 00:44:49,729
Give him a chance.
Give him a chance.

923
00:44:49,896 --> 00:44:52,649
Have you had a dermatologist
look at those things on your face?

924
00:44:52,815 --> 00:44:54,863
Wait a second, buddy.

925
00:44:55,026 --> 00:44:56,528
Send him back to Russia!

926
00:44:56,694 --> 00:44:58,913
Back to the Russkies!

927
00:44:59,071 --> 00:45:02,041
Schoonmaker:
So I was over at a friend's house.

928
00:45:02,200 --> 00:45:03,873
The guy said, "By the way,

929
00:45:04,035 --> 00:45:05,787
didn't you know that
Morton Downey, Jr.?"

930
00:45:05,953 --> 00:45:08,456
And I said, "Yeah."

931
00:45:08,623 --> 00:45:10,796
"Well, he's got a TV show."

932
00:45:10,958 --> 00:45:13,211
So I watched it.
It was-- and I said,

933
00:45:13,377 --> 00:45:15,300
"Holy shit."

934
00:45:15,463 --> 00:45:16,806
So I called him

935
00:45:16,964 --> 00:45:19,217
and he-- "Oh, got to come back
and work for me, Lloyd.

936
00:45:19,383 --> 00:45:21,727
You can't believe
what's happening."

937
00:45:21,886 --> 00:45:23,684
Cornwell:
Lloyd was always trying to make it.

938
00:45:23,846 --> 00:45:25,974
My dad was always
trying to make it.

939
00:45:26,140 --> 00:45:27,858
When my dad felt that he had,

940
00:45:28,017 --> 00:45:29,644
he really wanted Lloyd
there with him.

941
00:45:29,810 --> 00:45:32,484
(singing )

942
00:45:35,858 --> 00:45:38,327
Schoonmaker:
I'd always have my guitar

943
00:45:38,486 --> 00:45:40,955
and I'd pull it out
and we'd start singing folk songs.

944
00:45:43,658 --> 00:45:45,831
He said,
"Why don't we do an album?

945
00:45:45,993 --> 00:45:47,666
'Morton Downey Jr. Sings."'

946
00:45:50,164 --> 00:45:51,837
I said, "Sure."

947
00:46:00,424 --> 00:46:03,348
I walked in-- here's this bumpkin
from California

948
00:46:03,511 --> 00:46:06,765
and all of a sudden
I'm next to Mort.

949
00:46:06,931 --> 00:46:08,774
I got a weird feeling.

950
00:46:14,063 --> 00:46:17,112
We have some of the kids from
the Association to Benefit Children.

951
00:46:17,275 --> 00:46:19,698
Are they the homeless
of the next generation?

952
00:46:19,860 --> 00:46:21,407
Any of you want to come home
and live with me

953
00:46:21,570 --> 00:46:23,572
and my Doberman Pinscher?

954
00:46:26,701 --> 00:46:30,547
My dad was married to my mother
for 13 or so years.

955
00:46:30,705 --> 00:46:32,548
And that's my wife over there.
Where's my wife?

956
00:46:32,707 --> 00:46:35,335
Kimmy, stand up.
Stand up, honey.

957
00:46:35,501 --> 00:46:36,753
Stand up.

958
00:46:36,919 --> 00:46:39,388
Cornwell: He was married to Kim
for 13 years also.

959
00:46:39,547 --> 00:46:42,926
Downey, Jr.: And next to her
is my daughter, Kelli, all right?

960
00:46:43,092 --> 00:46:44,264
That's my daughter Kelli.

961
00:46:44,427 --> 00:46:46,270
That seemed to be the number

962
00:46:46,429 --> 00:46:49,103
that it ended unfortunately.

963
00:46:50,891 --> 00:46:52,893
Schoonmaker:
I moved in with Mort

964
00:46:53,060 --> 00:46:55,609
and his wife Kim

965
00:46:55,771 --> 00:46:58,240
in a house
in Englewood, New Jersey.

966
00:47:01,777 --> 00:47:04,906
I would sit on the couch
with Mort's dog, Senator, with me...

967
00:47:07,158 --> 00:47:09,331
working on songs
on the album.

968
00:47:10,786 --> 00:47:12,038
Coming up with them slowly.

969
00:47:15,458 --> 00:47:18,132
Schoonmaker:
There's the real Morton Downey.

970
00:47:18,294 --> 00:47:20,797
You put this shit in the trunk?

971
00:47:20,963 --> 00:47:23,842
Schoonmaker: Thought I was
gonna get a career in music.

972
00:47:24,884 --> 00:47:28,388
This would be my catalyst.

973
00:47:28,554 --> 00:47:30,431
Every night we would go
out to the limo

974
00:47:30,598 --> 00:47:32,100
and then race into the city

975
00:47:32,266 --> 00:47:34,985
and we'd go to Stringfellow's
or Elaine's.

976
00:47:36,687 --> 00:47:39,315
♪ The summer's gone ♪

977
00:47:39,482 --> 00:47:42,782
♪ And all the leaves are dying... ♪

978
00:47:45,363 --> 00:47:48,833
Langan: While very much
married to Kim,

979
00:47:48,991 --> 00:47:50,709
he enjoyed the fact
that for the first time in his life,

980
00:47:50,868 --> 00:47:53,872
he could get laid pretty much at will
'cause he was on TV.

981
00:47:54,038 --> 00:47:57,087
He was 50 and he was kind of
in a suspended,

982
00:47:57,249 --> 00:47:59,672
you know, adolescence, so he was
going for the 20-year-old.

983
00:47:59,835 --> 00:48:02,213
He would take me out to dinner

984
00:48:02,380 --> 00:48:06,226
and a beautiful
young woman would be there.

985
00:48:06,384 --> 00:48:08,887
It was a very awkward position
to be put in

986
00:48:09,053 --> 00:48:12,398
'cause he wasn't divorced
from Kim yet.

987
00:48:12,556 --> 00:48:15,355
I'd kept a diary
with a microphone

988
00:48:15,518 --> 00:48:17,316
on my little cassette saying,

989
00:48:17,478 --> 00:48:20,072
"You can't believe
what the fuck happened today."

990
00:48:20,231 --> 00:48:23,360
"I don't think this girl
is really interested in you."

991
00:48:23,526 --> 00:48:25,574
"Shut the fuck up, Lloyd,
I'm gonna do this anyway."

992
00:48:31,659 --> 00:48:33,912
Langan: His then-wife Kim,
when we got in the limo...

993
00:48:34,078 --> 00:48:35,079
Eh...?

994
00:48:35,246 --> 00:48:36,247
...she did kick him in the shins

995
00:48:36,414 --> 00:48:39,384
from the other side
of the back seat.

996
00:48:39,542 --> 00:48:41,544
( Roars )

997
00:48:43,629 --> 00:48:46,007
At which point
he went after her physically

998
00:48:46,173 --> 00:48:48,972
and if I hadn't been there to grab his--
he was gonna punch her.

999
00:48:50,177 --> 00:48:51,224
I threw him
over the hood of the car.

1000
00:48:51,387 --> 00:48:52,730
I said, "You wanna
take a punch at somebody,

1001
00:48:52,888 --> 00:48:54,686
take a punch at me."

1002
00:48:54,849 --> 00:48:56,817
There was some anger
towards women.

1003
00:48:56,976 --> 00:49:00,071
I don't know where that began,
but it was there.

1004
00:49:00,229 --> 00:49:02,402
Kellie Everts:
I had been invited

1005
00:49:02,565 --> 00:49:04,363
to do
"The Morton Downey, Jr. Show."

1006
00:49:04,525 --> 00:49:08,155
On the show, it's just strippers
and belly dancers.

1007
00:49:10,239 --> 00:49:12,458
So here she is
with her top off.

1008
00:49:14,660 --> 00:49:17,288
Then it occurred to me
I was better than her.

1009
00:49:21,709 --> 00:49:23,757
I just took off my top.

1010
00:49:26,422 --> 00:49:28,595
"Oh, wow, they really like me."

1011
00:49:33,429 --> 00:49:36,228
Cut. Cut.
We'll be back in just a minute.

1012
00:49:36,390 --> 00:49:38,734
He said, "You did a good thing.
You did a good thing."

1013
00:49:38,893 --> 00:49:40,895
And all of a sudden he's all happy,

1014
00:49:41,061 --> 00:49:44,691
like we're working as a team
to create entertainment, yeah?

1015
00:49:44,857 --> 00:49:47,827
But now, in the next moment,
he's brutalizing me.

1016
00:49:47,985 --> 00:49:49,953
I'd love you to try
to beat me, honey.

1017
00:49:50,112 --> 00:49:53,412
I'd show you how to kick
the living shit out of a broad.

1018
00:49:53,574 --> 00:49:55,451
I'm sick and tired of guys like you

1019
00:49:55,618 --> 00:49:56,915
calling us bimbos and whores.

1020
00:49:57,077 --> 00:49:58,579
Sit down, you fat bitch.

1021
00:49:58,746 --> 00:50:00,373
- Listen, you.
- Sit down!

1022
00:50:00,539 --> 00:50:02,212
Everts:
He was like fucking me.

1023
00:50:02,374 --> 00:50:05,048
Sit down. Sit down.
Sit down!

1024
00:50:05,211 --> 00:50:08,260
He was saying, "I can fuck you
and I can knock you down."

1025
00:50:10,382 --> 00:50:12,476
Goldsmith:
Controversy for Mort was,

1026
00:50:12,635 --> 00:50:14,478
"You make your living
on your back,

1027
00:50:14,637 --> 00:50:17,015
you don't have the right
to exist in this country."

1028
00:50:17,181 --> 00:50:19,104
Langan:
Said the man who loved hookers.

1029
00:50:21,060 --> 00:50:22,858
Downey, Jr.: Let me hear Denise.
She's been trying to say something.

1030
00:50:23,020 --> 00:50:26,490
I just wanted to say
that I feel like this business

1031
00:50:26,649 --> 00:50:28,447
has the potential to show

1032
00:50:28,609 --> 00:50:30,452
how beautiful the human body is.

1033
00:50:30,611 --> 00:50:33,956
He'd meet girls and he'd say,
"You can be my producer."

1034
00:50:34,114 --> 00:50:35,991
Where's your microphone?

1035
00:50:36,158 --> 00:50:38,001
Johnson:
This girl quit her job.

1036
00:50:39,954 --> 00:50:41,331
She's got the big blonde hair
and the big tits

1037
00:50:41,497 --> 00:50:42,794
and she's like,
"I'm ready for work."

1038
00:50:45,584 --> 00:50:48,884
She came into the office in tears.

1039
00:50:49,046 --> 00:50:50,923
Mort had called her
into the bathroom

1040
00:50:51,090 --> 00:50:54,515
and asked her to hold his penis
while he peed.

1041
00:50:54,677 --> 00:50:57,521
I remember that, too.
Unfortunately, I do as well.

1042
00:50:57,680 --> 00:50:59,478
- Yeah, I do.
- Oh, my God. That was so dark.

1043
00:50:59,640 --> 00:51:02,018
And that was
the really sort of-- ugh.

1044
00:51:02,184 --> 00:51:03,936
Johnson:
He was a pathological liar.

1045
00:51:04,103 --> 00:51:07,698
- But that's who he really was.
- The abyss was opening up.

1046
00:51:07,856 --> 00:51:10,826
Good afternoon, I'm Ernie Anastos
and here's what's happening.

1047
00:51:10,985 --> 00:51:13,113
She says she was kidnapped

1048
00:51:13,279 --> 00:51:15,873
and raped by six white men.

1049
00:51:16,031 --> 00:51:18,659
Man: Whenever a black woman
complains about a white man

1050
00:51:18,826 --> 00:51:23,332
raping her, the black woman
must be penalized.

1051
00:51:23,497 --> 00:51:27,047
Crouch:
Tawana Brawley was a teenager

1052
00:51:27,209 --> 00:51:30,713
who claimed to have been
kidnapped by these white guys,

1053
00:51:30,879 --> 00:51:33,553
some of whom
were police officers,

1054
00:51:33,716 --> 00:51:36,765
and repeatedly raped
and sodomized.

1055
00:51:39,555 --> 00:51:42,354
Boggs: They raped her
in Wappingers, New York.

1056
00:51:42,516 --> 00:51:45,816
They wrote racial
epithets on her body.

1057
00:51:45,978 --> 00:51:48,401
They smeared
her body with feces.

1058
00:51:48,564 --> 00:51:51,738
And then they left her for dead.

1059
00:51:51,900 --> 00:51:54,528
Crouch:
Al Sharpton and two lawyers

1060
00:51:54,695 --> 00:51:56,697
took over the case.

1061
00:51:59,783 --> 00:52:03,788
I have been privileged
to be involved in this case.

1062
00:52:03,954 --> 00:52:06,833
I've been privileged
to be an advisor

1063
00:52:06,999 --> 00:52:09,297
and a spokesman
for Tawana Brawley.

1064
00:52:09,460 --> 00:52:11,633
Allred:
There was quite a bit of stir

1065
00:52:11,795 --> 00:52:13,923
about who had raped her,

1066
00:52:14,089 --> 00:52:15,466
whether it was true.

1067
00:52:15,633 --> 00:52:18,261
I'm not a liar
and I'm not crazy.

1068
00:52:18,427 --> 00:52:20,020
I simply just want justice

1069
00:52:20,179 --> 00:52:22,147
and then I want to be
left alone.

1070
00:52:22,306 --> 00:52:24,559
That was the perfect kind of story

1071
00:52:24,725 --> 00:52:26,819
for Morton Downey.

1072
00:52:26,977 --> 00:52:30,322
It is amazing to me that you
could do Morton Downey's show

1073
00:52:30,481 --> 00:52:32,154
and call something I do
a circus.

1074
00:52:32,316 --> 00:52:34,614
Boggs: Mort and Al Sharpton
became very close.

1075
00:52:34,777 --> 00:52:37,530
I agree. You always have
to have a fat clown.

1076
00:52:39,323 --> 00:52:40,324
Wait a minute.
Wait a minute.

1077
00:52:40,491 --> 00:52:42,835
We're coming back
to the Tawana Brawley case.

1078
00:52:42,993 --> 00:52:44,040
Stay with us.

1079
00:52:44,203 --> 00:52:46,376
They saw something
in each other they were using.

1080
00:52:46,538 --> 00:52:49,417
Tonight,
Reverend Al Sharpton.

1081
00:52:49,583 --> 00:52:51,677
Boggs: Mort saw it for
what it was-- a ratings grabber.

1082
00:52:51,835 --> 00:52:54,054
- A brutal racial rape.
- Johnson: It had sex, it had race.

1083
00:52:54,213 --> 00:52:56,466
- Langan: Had it all.
- Johnson: It had it all.

1084
00:52:56,632 --> 00:52:58,976
The story is developing
every single minute.

1085
00:52:59,134 --> 00:53:02,263
We needed material.
So let's do the Tawana case again.

1086
00:53:02,429 --> 00:53:05,308
"I have a new angle on it."

1087
00:53:05,474 --> 00:53:07,147
"I found the box that she was in."

1088
00:53:07,309 --> 00:53:08,936
"I met her sister."

1089
00:53:11,021 --> 00:53:12,648
Goldsmith:
Mort Downey certainly squeezed

1090
00:53:12,815 --> 00:53:16,661
every bit of blood and rancor

1091
00:53:16,819 --> 00:53:18,821
out of Tawana Brawley's story.

1092
00:53:22,533 --> 00:53:25,332
My name is Steven Pagones.

1093
00:53:25,494 --> 00:53:27,997
I am the individual
who was accused

1094
00:53:28,163 --> 00:53:31,633
of rape and kidnapping
of Tawana Brawley.

1095
00:53:35,003 --> 00:53:37,347
Not only did I not have anything

1096
00:53:37,506 --> 00:53:39,349
to do with Tawana Brawley,

1097
00:53:39,508 --> 00:53:41,476
but there was absolutely
no evidence

1098
00:53:41,635 --> 00:53:44,764
to support
these outrageous allegations.

1099
00:53:46,306 --> 00:53:48,650
Dershowitz:
Tawana Brawley's advocates

1100
00:53:48,809 --> 00:53:52,404
would have been laughed
out of any grand jury.

1101
00:53:52,563 --> 00:53:54,611
There are no repercussions

1102
00:53:54,773 --> 00:53:57,617
for making yourself
look like a total fool

1103
00:53:57,776 --> 00:53:59,528
on talk television.

1104
00:53:59,695 --> 00:54:01,368
( Tone beeping )

1105
00:54:01,530 --> 00:54:04,830
So it was a perfect vehicle.

1106
00:54:09,037 --> 00:54:10,505
I'm tired of them acting big.
You ain't nothing.

1107
00:54:10,664 --> 00:54:12,917
You a punk faggot.
Now come and do something.

1108
00:54:13,083 --> 00:54:15,552
You ain't nothing.
Why don't you shut up?

1109
00:54:15,711 --> 00:54:18,055
Yelling at your old ladies.
Yell at me, punk.

1110
00:54:18,213 --> 00:54:19,806
Johnson:
We made Al Sharpton.

1111
00:54:19,965 --> 00:54:21,717
- Langan: 100%.
- Goldsmith: Yes, we did. Yes.

1112
00:54:28,098 --> 00:54:29,600
So let me give you
a challenge.

1113
00:54:29,767 --> 00:54:32,566
Pagones: I remember hearing
Morton Downey represent

1114
00:54:32,728 --> 00:54:34,275
that I would be on his show
the next day

1115
00:54:34,438 --> 00:54:37,567
if Sharpton agreed to bring
Tawana Brawley the next day.

1116
00:54:37,733 --> 00:54:39,952
Why don't you have
Steven Pagones?

1117
00:54:40,110 --> 00:54:41,703
- Why don't you bring Tawana?
- I'll bring Tawana.

1118
00:54:41,862 --> 00:54:43,910
- Bring Tawana.
- Zip it and tell me what day.

1119
00:54:44,072 --> 00:54:46,746
I want them here tomorrow!

1120
00:54:46,909 --> 00:54:49,287
DiBenedetto: The whispers around
there were, "Reverend Al Sharpton's

1121
00:54:49,453 --> 00:54:51,797
going to be here
and he's bringing Tawana Brawley."

1122
00:55:00,130 --> 00:55:02,599
And we waited
and waited and waited.

1123
00:55:05,552 --> 00:55:09,602
To pass the time,
Mort was making an album

1124
00:55:09,765 --> 00:55:12,985
- called "Morton Downey, Jr. Sings..."
-( laughter)

1125
00:55:13,143 --> 00:55:14,986
and he said he had
his guitarist friend there

1126
00:55:15,145 --> 00:55:17,864
who was helping him with this album,
and if we wouldn't mind,

1127
00:55:18,023 --> 00:55:20,151
would we mind listening
to some of these songs.

1128
00:55:20,317 --> 00:55:22,319
We sat there listening to probably

1129
00:55:22,486 --> 00:55:23,738
one of the only
Morton Downey, Jr. concerts.

1130
00:55:24,905 --> 00:55:27,033
It's a shame the tape
wasn't running that day.

1131
00:55:53,642 --> 00:55:55,815
And a lot of the audience
had to leave after a couple hours

1132
00:55:55,978 --> 00:55:58,197
because they eventually
wound up standing us up.

1133
00:56:03,694 --> 00:56:06,664
Al, you told me the next day
Tawana Brawley would be here.

1134
00:56:06,822 --> 00:56:09,496
- That's not-- no, no.
- Don't touch my hand!

1135
00:56:23,547 --> 00:56:25,220
I went up to Sharpton, I said,
"What's wrong with you, Al?

1136
00:56:25,382 --> 00:56:26,929
How could you say this?"
He goes, "Don't worry about it.

1137
00:56:27,092 --> 00:56:28,344
It's good for me.
It's good for your ratings.

1138
00:56:28,510 --> 00:56:29,682
It's good for everybody.
Relax."

1139
00:56:29,845 --> 00:56:30,846
That's exactly
what he said to me.

1140
00:56:31,013 --> 00:56:33,516
I spoke to Pagones.
He was more than willing to be here.

1141
00:56:33,682 --> 00:56:35,935
In fact, nobody ever called me
or asked me about it.

1142
00:56:36,101 --> 00:56:39,230
It's kind of
a Joe McCarthy-esque thing

1143
00:56:39,396 --> 00:56:41,865
like when you watch McCarthy in films,

1144
00:56:42,024 --> 00:56:45,028
you actually
can see him get excited.

1145
00:56:46,361 --> 00:56:49,205
"There are 30 Communists
in the House of Representatives.

1146
00:56:49,364 --> 00:56:50,832
No, no, no!

1147
00:56:50,991 --> 00:56:53,414
There are 60 Communists
in the House of Representatives.

1148
00:56:53,577 --> 00:56:56,126
No, there are 90!"

1149
00:56:56,288 --> 00:56:59,007
It's sort of a wave that people
like to get caught in.

1150
00:56:59,166 --> 00:57:01,464
We understand Mr. Downey
can now be almost coming

1151
00:57:01,627 --> 00:57:04,722
at a theater near you, right?
You're taking it on the road.

1152
00:57:04,880 --> 00:57:08,180
We're opening at the Apollo Theater
in a few weeks.

1153
00:57:08,342 --> 00:57:09,889
( Cheering )

1154
00:57:10,052 --> 00:57:12,555
Goldsmith: We did the show
at the Apollo Theater.

1155
00:57:12,721 --> 00:57:14,564
The premise was
Tawana Brawley.

1156
00:57:19,519 --> 00:57:21,863
Crouch:
When he went that far,

1157
00:57:22,022 --> 00:57:23,615
was no release of the tension.

1158
00:57:25,943 --> 00:57:28,867
If you've ever been in a riot--
I have been in one.

1159
00:57:29,029 --> 00:57:31,327
I was in one
on the Downey show.

1160
00:57:31,490 --> 00:57:33,959
Downey, Jr.:
Cool it and sit down, please.

1161
00:57:34,117 --> 00:57:35,369
Go ahead, sir.

1162
00:57:35,535 --> 00:57:37,708
My name is Stanley Crouch.
I'm a writer.

1163
00:57:37,871 --> 00:57:40,624
Mr. Sharpton,
you have been criticized

1164
00:57:40,791 --> 00:57:43,670
by every black persuasion
of leadership in New York.

1165
00:57:43,835 --> 00:57:47,806
Once it starts, it's hard
for people to get out of it.

1166
00:57:47,965 --> 00:57:51,390
And they can't get out of it
until they're actually spent.

1167
00:57:51,551 --> 00:57:54,930
It was alleged that she was
smeared all over with feces.

1168
00:57:55,097 --> 00:57:57,270
- Lie.
- That's a lot of crap.

1169
00:57:57,432 --> 00:57:59,855
- This man says a lot of crap.
- Brother, you had your chance!

1170
00:58:00,018 --> 00:58:01,770
Brother, brother, no.

1171
00:58:01,937 --> 00:58:04,110
Hell, no! Hell, no!

1172
00:58:11,113 --> 00:58:13,707
Downey, Jr.: Get him out of here.
Get him out of here.

1173
00:58:13,865 --> 00:58:17,039
Get him out of here.
Please, get out of here.

1174
00:58:17,202 --> 00:58:19,796
God bless you and thank you
for being my friend.

1175
00:58:21,832 --> 00:58:24,301
Take it easy or I'm gonna
make you take it easy, all right?

1176
00:58:24,459 --> 00:58:26,757
I said to myself,
"This has gone too far now."

1177
00:58:26,920 --> 00:58:28,593
This is only
a fucking talk show.

1178
00:58:28,755 --> 00:58:30,302
What the fuck is wrong
with him?

1179
00:58:30,465 --> 00:58:32,012
Give me an open mic.

1180
00:58:32,175 --> 00:58:34,348
We're going to continue
with the show.

1181
00:58:34,511 --> 00:58:35,979
Boggs: Downey was saying
to the audience...

1182
00:58:36,138 --> 00:58:38,311
We're not going
to give the press a chance--

1183
00:58:38,473 --> 00:58:39,975
"...to say that
we're a bunch of idiots."

1184
00:58:40,142 --> 00:58:41,485
After he said that,
he ran offstage,

1185
00:58:41,643 --> 00:58:43,520
got me on the phone, and said,
"Boggs, God damn it,

1186
00:58:43,687 --> 00:58:44,939
we need some publicity for this.

1187
00:58:45,105 --> 00:58:46,948
I can't keep these people
riled up all night."

1188
00:58:51,445 --> 00:58:53,664
Crouch: From the outside
it looked like a fight.

1189
00:58:57,200 --> 00:58:59,794
From the inside,
it looked like a party.

1190
00:59:05,667 --> 00:59:09,012
Eventually it turned out
that she hadn't been kidnapped.

1191
00:59:09,171 --> 00:59:10,593
This is no hoax.

1192
00:59:10,756 --> 00:59:14,181
It is the only--
it is the ugly truth.

1193
00:59:14,342 --> 00:59:17,391
Pagones:
The grand jury concluded

1194
00:59:17,554 --> 00:59:21,024
she made up some horrific story.

1195
00:59:21,183 --> 00:59:23,982
She did some horrific things
to herself.

1196
00:59:24,144 --> 00:59:25,771
Robert Abrams:
There was no evidence

1197
00:59:25,937 --> 00:59:29,817
that a sexual assault
was committed.

1198
00:59:29,983 --> 00:59:33,032
It's very difficult to sit down
with your children,

1199
00:59:33,195 --> 00:59:35,448
especially when
three of them are girls,

1200
00:59:35,614 --> 00:59:38,959
and explain to them,
"There were people who were

1201
00:59:39,117 --> 00:59:41,290
accusing your daddy

1202
00:59:41,453 --> 00:59:43,126
of being a monster."

1203
00:59:48,502 --> 00:59:50,971
Hey.

1204
00:59:54,466 --> 00:59:57,310
Reynolds: He was the number one guy
on television

1205
00:59:57,469 --> 00:59:59,392
and we hadn't talked in a long time.

1206
00:59:59,554 --> 01:00:02,182
And he said, "Hey, pal,
you got to come up here."

1207
01:00:03,975 --> 01:00:05,648
We'll check this place out,
all right?

1208
01:00:05,811 --> 01:00:07,484
Is he going to do your show?

1209
01:00:07,646 --> 01:00:09,899
Eventually, if I go trash.

1210
01:00:11,733 --> 01:00:13,906
Reynolds:
He got very self-centered.

1211
01:00:14,069 --> 01:00:16,743
He orders whiskey sours.

1212
01:00:16,905 --> 01:00:18,828
I don't drink.

1213
01:00:18,990 --> 01:00:21,038
He then called some girls
to come to the room.

1214
01:00:21,201 --> 01:00:24,922
I don't womanize. I was a married guy
and I was faithful.

1215
01:00:25,080 --> 01:00:27,924
He went into
the rehearsal hall

1216
01:00:28,083 --> 01:00:30,882
and there were the chorus girls
rehearsing.

1217
01:00:31,044 --> 01:00:34,048
They're all giddy 'cause
Morton Downey, Jr. walked in

1218
01:00:34,214 --> 01:00:36,262
and I was, of course,
with him

1219
01:00:36,424 --> 01:00:38,097
and feeling
like a real hot shit.

1220
01:00:38,260 --> 01:00:40,763
Man: Look at the young couple
sitting here.

1221
01:00:40,929 --> 01:00:43,773
Reynolds:
He picked out Lori.

1222
01:00:43,932 --> 01:00:46,435
Cornwell:
She had beautiful blue eyes.

1223
01:00:47,477 --> 01:00:50,856
She was, you know,
a struggling dancer.

1224
01:00:51,022 --> 01:00:52,615
I was like,
"What are you doing?"

1225
01:00:52,774 --> 01:00:55,072
Man: Kelli, say something
intelligent if you can.

1226
01:00:55,235 --> 01:00:56,782
I don't know if she was
playing hard to get

1227
01:00:56,945 --> 01:01:00,119
or if she really in the beginning
wasn't interested.

1228
01:01:00,282 --> 01:01:03,752
Or if that was part of what
made her so appealing to him.

1229
01:01:05,495 --> 01:01:08,715
Reynolds: From then on,
it was "Lori, Lori, Lori, Lori."

1230
01:01:10,417 --> 01:01:12,670
He didn't care
about anything else.

1231
01:01:12,836 --> 01:01:15,339
The producers would say to me,
"What is she trying to do?"

1232
01:01:15,505 --> 01:01:18,509
And I said,
"I don't know that she realizes

1233
01:01:18,675 --> 01:01:20,769
that he is totally obsessed."

1234
01:01:23,263 --> 01:01:25,311
Langan: She was the cause
of a lot of heartache for Kim

1235
01:01:25,473 --> 01:01:27,567
because he started cheating
while very much married to Kim.

1236
01:01:27,726 --> 01:01:29,899
Downey, Jr.:
Who predicted I'd get divorced?

1237
01:01:30,061 --> 01:01:31,938
Oh, yeah.

1238
01:01:32,105 --> 01:01:33,823
My ex-wife is watching
the show tonight.

1239
01:01:33,982 --> 01:01:36,952
You gave me 10 great years
and I enjoyed 'em, so...

1240
01:01:37,110 --> 01:01:39,363
( audience applauds )

1241
01:01:41,948 --> 01:01:45,623
But watch what I do
with the next 10, baby!

1242
01:01:45,785 --> 01:01:49,164
Reynolds: His whole life
at that time was trying to please Lori.

1243
01:01:49,331 --> 01:01:53,177
(singing )

1244
01:01:53,335 --> 01:01:56,259
One time somebody said, "Well,
she's just trying to get his money."

1245
01:01:56,421 --> 01:02:00,176
♪ I'd get down here
on bended knee ♪

1246
01:02:00,342 --> 01:02:03,972
♪ Only you... ♪

1247
01:02:04,137 --> 01:02:07,357
Mort was purchasing
a multimillion-dollar condo.

1248
01:02:10,268 --> 01:02:11,815
"Lori's gonna have her
knickknacks here

1249
01:02:11,978 --> 01:02:14,697
and I'm gonna put this and we're
gonna do this and this and this."

1250
01:02:14,856 --> 01:02:16,529
Downey, Jr.:
Lori's dressing table.

1251
01:02:16,691 --> 01:02:18,864
The stuff that Lori wants
will go here.

1252
01:02:20,820 --> 01:02:23,790
Reynolds: Yet Lori, she didn't
care about the money.

1253
01:02:23,949 --> 01:02:26,828
Man: One beautiful, tall blonde
comes with the apartment.

1254
01:02:28,161 --> 01:02:29,378
Reynolds:
The bills were piling up.

1255
01:02:29,537 --> 01:02:32,882
Downey, Jr.:
One, two, three glass statues.

1256
01:02:33,041 --> 01:02:36,511
He owed $50,000
to this credit card company

1257
01:02:36,670 --> 01:02:39,924
and he said,
"Oh, fuck it,"

1258
01:02:40,090 --> 01:02:42,639
and he'd grab the bill
and just throw it in the trash.

1259
01:02:42,801 --> 01:02:46,180
Downey, Jr.: And we have
the clown mask there.

1260
01:02:48,181 --> 01:02:49,808
- "Inside Edition."
- How are you, sir?

1261
01:02:49,975 --> 01:02:53,070
He didn't like to talk about anything
somebody could call him on.

1262
01:02:53,228 --> 01:02:56,072
- Get the fuck away from me.
- He'd just go into a rage.

1263
01:02:56,231 --> 01:02:58,780
Hey! We're trying
to do a story.

1264
01:02:58,942 --> 01:03:03,368
You pull a sneak-up bit of shit
on someone else, cocksucker.

1265
01:03:03,530 --> 01:03:05,077
Pittman: He would always
after these episodes say,

1266
01:03:05,240 --> 01:03:08,619
"I know I let you down.
I shouldn't have done that."

1267
01:03:08,785 --> 01:03:12,415
Downey, Jr.: That's tough shit!
You want the kinda prick that I am?

1268
01:03:12,580 --> 01:03:15,629
I'll rip your fucking lungs out,
motherfucker.

1269
01:03:15,792 --> 01:03:17,465
- Try me.
- I'll touch whatever I want.

1270
01:03:17,627 --> 01:03:19,846
- Bystander: Get him, Mort.
- Bystander #2: You tell him, Mort.

1271
01:03:20,005 --> 01:03:22,929
Try me,
you cunt-lipped bastard!

1272
01:03:23,091 --> 01:03:25,890
Pittman: it was sad to find
a man that talented

1273
01:03:26,052 --> 01:03:28,305
who could not control himself.

1274
01:03:31,266 --> 01:03:32,939
I tried to appeal to the logic of,

1275
01:03:33,101 --> 01:03:35,729
"At the end of the day, Mort,
I have other things in my life.

1276
01:03:35,895 --> 01:03:38,694
I have other ways to make money.
I do make money in other ways.

1277
01:03:38,857 --> 01:03:40,109
This is your life."

1278
01:03:43,611 --> 01:03:45,989
He just needed the money.

1279
01:03:46,156 --> 01:03:47,954
Langan: We used to do
these weekend gigs where he--

1280
01:03:48,116 --> 01:03:50,289
where he made more money
doing that than he did the show.

1281
01:03:52,162 --> 01:03:55,132
Schoonmaker: We'd go to college after
college and we felt like rock stars.

1282
01:03:56,833 --> 01:03:58,961
When we had our small plane,

1283
01:03:59,127 --> 01:04:02,051
we would travel everywhere.

1284
01:04:02,213 --> 01:04:06,059
Mort said, "I did this at 21,"

1285
01:04:06,217 --> 01:04:08,470
before I knew him
when he was a younger man.

1286
01:04:19,147 --> 01:04:22,276
Now I couldn't believe
all these people

1287
01:04:22,442 --> 01:04:25,946
thought he was
the "Blue Collar King."

1288
01:04:30,241 --> 01:04:32,664
Missouri is called
the "Show-Me State," right?

1289
01:04:32,827 --> 01:04:35,046
What really
burns your butt, baby?

1290
01:04:35,205 --> 01:04:37,378
It's people putting
the American flag on the ground

1291
01:04:37,540 --> 01:04:38,917
and stepping all over it.

1292
01:04:39,084 --> 01:04:40,336
How about you, ma'am?

1293
01:04:40,502 --> 01:04:43,472
I am so irritated
that we let foreigners come in

1294
01:04:43,630 --> 01:04:47,009
and buy up our farmland
in western Kansas.

1295
01:04:47,175 --> 01:04:48,518
Schoonmaker:
He could get people screaming.

1296
01:04:48,676 --> 01:04:50,349
He could get 'em crying.

1297
01:04:50,512 --> 01:04:53,516
We need to support one another
and be American.

1298
01:04:53,681 --> 01:04:55,979
This is the greatest nation
on this side of heaven.

1299
01:04:59,646 --> 01:05:01,489
Schoonmaker: We went
out of the back of the theater

1300
01:05:01,648 --> 01:05:03,946
and, my God,
there's a whole mob.

1301
01:05:12,534 --> 01:05:14,628
Langan:
At the University of Pittsburgh,

1302
01:05:14,786 --> 01:05:17,039
there were 5,000 people
in the audience.

1303
01:05:19,165 --> 01:05:21,418
( Marching )

1304
01:05:26,881 --> 01:05:28,883
Crowd's roaring.
It's like a rally at Nuremberg.

1305
01:05:29,050 --> 01:05:30,267
You know, "Mort, Mort, Mort."

1306
01:05:30,427 --> 01:05:32,771
Crowd: Mort! Mort! Mort!
Mort! Mort! Mort!

1307
01:05:32,929 --> 01:05:34,852
Mort! Mort! Mort!

1308
01:05:35,014 --> 01:05:38,393
Langan:
And instead of doing the show,

1309
01:05:38,560 --> 01:05:40,107
Mort walks out there and--
pardon my French--

1310
01:05:40,270 --> 01:05:42,898
and he goes,
"Hey, guys, you wanna see

1311
01:05:43,064 --> 01:05:46,068
what a 60-year-old guy
is blanking these days?"

1312
01:05:49,446 --> 01:05:51,414
He brings out Lori.

1313
01:05:54,075 --> 01:05:55,873
And I can see people
talking to each other

1314
01:05:56,035 --> 01:05:58,129
and then the promoter's
in my face going,

1315
01:05:58,288 --> 01:05:59,835
"This isn't why they're here."

1316
01:05:59,998 --> 01:06:02,842
( switches clicking )

1317
01:06:03,001 --> 01:06:04,503
( thunder crackling )

1318
01:06:05,503 --> 01:06:08,598
Langan: On a plane back, I was seated
next to a grand poobah

1319
01:06:08,756 --> 01:06:11,009
of advertising
for Domino's Pizza.

1320
01:06:12,719 --> 01:06:14,767
And she goes, "Oh, you are so
totally our audience."

1321
01:06:14,929 --> 01:06:16,101
"Why don't you advertise?"

1322
01:06:16,264 --> 01:06:19,359
"Because I don't want the name
'Domino's' on the screen

1323
01:06:19,517 --> 01:06:23,112
the day that idiot you work for
blows himself up."

1324
01:06:26,608 --> 01:06:28,610
Pittman: Do you really want
to fight it out with the advertisers?

1325
01:06:30,778 --> 01:06:32,371
At a certain point,
how do you defend stuff?

1326
01:06:34,949 --> 01:06:37,793
Johnson: We stopped being able to
book legitimate guests, remember?

1327
01:06:37,952 --> 01:06:40,626
Goldsmith: We did, because
if you had an opposing view,

1328
01:06:40,788 --> 01:06:43,462
it was Mort and 180 people
in the audience against you.

1329
01:06:43,625 --> 01:06:46,629
- I am a servant of the Almighty.
- Please tell us.

1330
01:06:46,794 --> 01:06:48,637
I seek refuge in God

1331
01:06:48,796 --> 01:06:52,221
from the rejected Satan
in name of God.

1332
01:06:52,383 --> 01:06:56,183
Isn't that the song? "I wanted
the clowns to be constantly funny.

1333
01:06:56,346 --> 01:06:58,269
Have I stayed too long
at the fair?"

1334
01:07:00,058 --> 01:07:03,983
♪ Have I stayed too long ♪

1335
01:07:04,145 --> 01:07:06,147
♪ At the fair? ♪

1336
01:07:06,314 --> 01:07:08,737
It got less real as time went on.
It became a cartoon.

1337
01:07:08,900 --> 01:07:11,244
At the beginning, it was.

1338
01:07:11,402 --> 01:07:14,201
And later on,
it became "Avatar."

1339
01:07:15,490 --> 01:07:17,163
Goldsmith: I didn't think
the show was sleazy.

1340
01:07:17,325 --> 01:07:18,793
I didn't.

1341
01:07:18,952 --> 01:07:20,625
Guest: Some people
in this world are different.

1342
01:07:20,787 --> 01:07:22,334
I happen to be one
of those different people.

1343
01:07:22,497 --> 01:07:26,001
I'm just as worthy as any other person
even though I'm different.

1344
01:07:28,127 --> 01:07:30,676
Langan: May I remind you
of the homeless woman

1345
01:07:30,838 --> 01:07:34,183
who was a double amputee that
played the "Star Spangled Banner"

1346
01:07:34,342 --> 01:07:36,390
with her tongue from a gurney?

1347
01:07:36,553 --> 01:07:38,271
That was towards the end.
That was towards the end.

1348
01:07:38,429 --> 01:07:40,056
And we loved it.

1349
01:07:40,223 --> 01:07:42,692
♪ The music has stopped ♪

1350
01:07:42,850 --> 01:07:48,027
♪ And the children must go now ♪

1351
01:07:49,983 --> 01:07:53,908
♪ Have I stayed too long ♪

1352
01:07:54,070 --> 01:07:55,947
♪ At the fair? ♪

1353
01:07:57,865 --> 01:07:59,412
♪ Are <i>we</i> rolling downhill ♪

1354
01:07:59,576 --> 01:08:02,955
♪ Like a snowball
that's headed for hell? ♪

1355
01:08:03,121 --> 01:08:06,546
Buchanan: The idea is to be
an attractive figure on television...

1356
01:08:06,708 --> 01:08:08,381
♪ Have we deepened the crack ♪

1357
01:08:08,543 --> 01:08:12,264
♪ In our beautiful Liberty Bell? ♪

1358
01:08:12,422 --> 01:08:15,426
...so that you can change minds
and ultimately policy.

1359
01:08:15,592 --> 01:08:17,594
♪ ls a Ford still a car? ♪

1360
01:08:17,760 --> 01:08:21,765
Can you let the entertainment
value run away

1361
01:08:21,931 --> 01:08:25,105
into the fever swamps?

1362
01:08:25,268 --> 01:08:26,941
And I think you might've seen

1363
01:08:27,103 --> 01:08:29,105
some of that
with my old friend Mort.

1364
01:08:34,360 --> 01:08:35,953
Langan: I got into
a fierce argument with Mort,

1365
01:08:36,112 --> 01:08:38,615
and that was about the time I left,

1366
01:08:38,781 --> 01:08:40,783
when I said, "Mort,
if you could just keep it

1367
01:08:40,950 --> 01:08:42,998
in your pants
literally and figuratively,

1368
01:08:43,161 --> 01:08:45,289
you could be the center square
on the 'Hollywood Squares'

1369
01:08:45,455 --> 01:08:47,298
until the day they put you
in the ground

1370
01:08:47,457 --> 01:08:48,959
and you don't have
to blow up the show."

1371
01:08:49,125 --> 01:08:51,469
Mr. Mayor,

1372
01:08:51,628 --> 01:08:54,632
now, what I want to know

1373
01:08:54,797 --> 01:08:58,427
and what these people
want to know and what America--

1374
01:08:58,593 --> 01:09:00,891
We're not-- we have to come
into another segment.

1375
01:09:01,054 --> 01:09:03,682
What in the fuck am I doing here?

1376
01:09:03,848 --> 01:09:05,191
Are we on the air?

1377
01:09:05,350 --> 01:09:06,977
We've been taping.
We've been taping.

1378
01:09:07,143 --> 01:09:09,862
Schoonmaker: Mort didn't want
to hear it when he was wrong.

1379
01:09:11,648 --> 01:09:13,571
I guess it's a little like Elvis,
you know,

1380
01:09:13,733 --> 01:09:15,781
those people
that are around him.

1381
01:09:15,943 --> 01:09:18,992
"Hey, you shouldn't be
taking those drugs."

1382
01:09:19,155 --> 01:09:21,328
"Fuck you.
You're not working anymore."

1383
01:09:21,491 --> 01:09:24,995
Record this.
Record this. Record it.

1384
01:09:25,161 --> 01:09:26,253
( Tone beeps )

1385
01:09:28,331 --> 01:09:29,753
Bey:
As someone who went through

1386
01:09:29,916 --> 01:09:32,840
a similar kind of experience,

1387
01:09:33,002 --> 01:09:35,300
you don't think
it's ever going to end

1388
01:09:35,463 --> 01:09:36,589
when you're in the midst of it.

1389
01:09:36,756 --> 01:09:41,057
Audience:
♪ Hey, hey, hey, goodbye. ♪

1390
01:09:46,599 --> 01:09:48,727
"Will you move to replace

1391
01:09:48,893 --> 01:09:50,145
that man who's on top,

1392
01:09:50,311 --> 01:09:53,861
not caring who's hurt,
too cruel to stop?"

1393
01:09:54,023 --> 01:09:58,028
Audience:
♪ Hey, hey, hey, goodbye ♪

1394
01:09:58,194 --> 01:10:00,242
♪ Na, na, na, na ♪

1395
01:10:00,405 --> 01:10:02,157
♪ Na, na, na, na... ♪

1396
01:10:02,323 --> 01:10:05,042
Bey:
"God help you, blind man,

1397
01:10:05,201 --> 01:10:07,169
with eyes that see,

1398
01:10:07,328 --> 01:10:09,751
but cannot cry.

1399
01:10:09,914 --> 01:10:12,292
How foolish you are.

1400
01:10:12,458 --> 01:10:15,758
You, too, must die."

1401
01:10:18,673 --> 01:10:20,141
Schoonmaker:
Mort broke up with Kim

1402
01:10:20,299 --> 01:10:22,802
and moved into Trump Tower.

1403
01:10:22,969 --> 01:10:26,098
Sitting at Trump Tower one time,
he said, "I got to do something.

1404
01:10:26,264 --> 01:10:29,017
Got to do something big."

1405
01:10:29,183 --> 01:10:30,685
And I said, "Oh, shit."

1406
01:10:30,852 --> 01:10:33,150
(thunder crashing )

1407
01:10:41,279 --> 01:10:43,657
♪ Start spreading the news. ♪

1408
01:10:45,032 --> 01:10:46,579
- You get the city?
- Woman: Hey, Mark.

1409
01:10:46,743 --> 01:10:49,542
What are you
looking at, huh?

1410
01:10:49,704 --> 01:10:51,706
We're in the movies.

1411
01:10:51,873 --> 01:10:54,001
Yes, we are.

1412
01:10:54,167 --> 01:10:56,670
I'm going to show this to Mort.
He'll put you on television.

1413
01:10:59,380 --> 01:11:01,303
Schoonmaker: The live shows
where we would travel around

1414
01:11:01,466 --> 01:11:03,343
were cut down
to like three shows a month.

1415
01:11:03,509 --> 01:11:05,182
And the middle class
of this country

1416
01:11:05,344 --> 01:11:07,346
has been a victim
too fucking long.

1417
01:11:07,513 --> 01:11:09,811
Schoonmaker:
Mort and I flew to Denver...

1418
01:11:12,143 --> 01:11:14,987
and then San Francisco.

1419
01:11:19,233 --> 01:11:21,952
Fuck me? I wouldn't fuck you
with his dick.

1420
01:11:25,406 --> 01:11:28,580
We're taking our streets back
away from all these minorities,

1421
01:11:28,743 --> 01:11:30,086
away from all
these jungle bunnies.

1422
01:11:30,244 --> 01:11:32,542
That's what
the skinheads are doing

1423
01:11:32,705 --> 01:11:34,378
in the White Aryan Resistance.

1424
01:11:34,540 --> 01:11:37,134
We fight for white America.

1425
01:11:37,293 --> 01:11:40,923
Then you are white shit.
You are white shit.

1426
01:11:41,088 --> 01:11:42,761
White shit.

1427
01:11:44,091 --> 01:11:47,766
Schoonmaker:
At the San Francisco Airport,

1428
01:11:47,929 --> 01:11:50,773
I watched him
walk into the men's room.

1429
01:11:50,932 --> 01:11:53,276
I walked down here
and I hear the voice go,

1430
01:11:53,434 --> 01:11:56,938
"Lloyd, Lloyd, where are you?"

1431
01:11:57,104 --> 01:11:58,777
And I said,
"Mort, where are you?"

1432
01:11:58,940 --> 01:12:02,535
So I walked down
about three or four stalls,

1433
01:12:02,693 --> 01:12:04,821
opened the door.

1434
01:12:06,989 --> 01:12:08,787
"Oh, my God.

1435
01:12:12,954 --> 01:12:15,252
Security! Security!

1436
01:12:15,414 --> 01:12:17,382
Morton Downey, Jr.'s in there

1437
01:12:17,542 --> 01:12:19,886
and he's been attacked
by skinheads."

1438
01:12:24,966 --> 01:12:28,220
Pittman: I said,
"Oh, my gosh, that's terrible."

1439
01:12:28,386 --> 01:12:31,014
I said, "Well, don't talk to the press
until we figure out what the story is."

1440
01:12:31,180 --> 01:12:33,933
He says,
"Well, there's a problem."

1441
01:12:34,100 --> 01:12:36,478
He called me from a room
with all the press already in the room.

1442
01:12:36,644 --> 01:12:40,569
First, the one guy yelled,
"Kill the --."

1443
01:12:40,731 --> 01:12:42,733
And the other guy just started
cutting my hair off.

1444
01:12:42,900 --> 01:12:44,902
Sliwa:
So I'm watching on TV

1445
01:12:45,069 --> 01:12:48,494
and I said, "Gee, that sounds
so strange, doesn't sound right."

1446
01:12:48,656 --> 01:12:51,000
Immediately had the flashback
that it was like

1447
01:12:51,158 --> 01:12:53,286
a Tawana Brawley, round two.

1448
01:12:53,452 --> 01:12:55,500
( Bell clangs )

1449
01:12:55,663 --> 01:12:57,336
Goldsmith:
Mort called me.

1450
01:12:57,498 --> 01:12:59,341
"I just got jumped
by a bunch of skinheads.

1451
01:12:59,500 --> 01:13:01,468
I'm screwed.
What you gotta do is

1452
01:13:01,627 --> 01:13:03,129
you gotta get a private jet
to fly me back.

1453
01:13:03,296 --> 01:13:05,094
I can't fly commercial."

1454
01:13:05,256 --> 01:13:07,884
Schoonmaker: We landed
and he rushed to Trump Tower.

1455
01:13:08,050 --> 01:13:09,643
Radio reporter: Day by day,
we learn a little more

1456
01:13:09,802 --> 01:13:11,520
about the case
of Tawana Brawley.

1457
01:13:11,679 --> 01:13:12,976
Woman:
She crawled into the bag.

1458
01:13:13,139 --> 01:13:15,733
Reporter #2: Witnesses said they saw
her climbing into the plastic bag

1459
01:13:15,892 --> 01:13:17,735
in which she had been found.

1460
01:13:19,312 --> 01:13:20,939
Goldsmith:
We drive to Trump Tower

1461
01:13:21,105 --> 01:13:23,449
and there's Donald Trump
in the lobby and he liked Mort.

1462
01:13:23,608 --> 01:13:25,531
- Langan: It's not a surprise.
- Goldsmith: "What happened?

1463
01:13:25,693 --> 01:13:27,866
Oh, my God.
Take him up to my suite."

1464
01:13:30,406 --> 01:13:32,204
( music playing )

1465
01:13:34,160 --> 01:13:36,037
Schoonmaker:
The album was just out.

1466
01:13:36,203 --> 01:13:39,628
They just shipped 250,000 copies.

1467
01:13:39,790 --> 01:13:43,420
♪ Hey there, Mr. Dealer ♪

1468
01:13:43,586 --> 01:13:46,681
♪ You drug-pushing
son of a bitch... ♪

1469
01:13:46,839 --> 01:13:48,967
I knew if this went
across America, which it did,

1470
01:13:49,133 --> 01:13:52,012
it hit the wire services,
went across everywhere...

1471
01:13:54,055 --> 01:13:56,433
then people would say,
"He's just a phony sleaze."

1472
01:13:56,599 --> 01:13:58,897
You know,
"What is this crap?"

1473
01:13:59,060 --> 01:14:02,655
♪ The garbage of our land ♪

1474
01:14:02,813 --> 01:14:05,908
♪ The devil is a-waiting
just to welcome you ♪

1475
01:14:06,067 --> 01:14:09,412
♪ To your eternal promised land. ♪

1476
01:14:10,988 --> 01:14:14,583
He claims that he was attacked
by three neo-Nazi skinheads.

1477
01:14:14,742 --> 01:14:16,039
Police are not so sure.

1478
01:14:16,202 --> 01:14:18,296
There were no skinheads
to be found in the area.

1479
01:14:18,454 --> 01:14:20,627
His ratings are dying.
Everyone knows that.

1480
01:14:20,790 --> 01:14:22,667
Just relax your arm there.

1481
01:14:22,833 --> 01:14:25,086
Schoonmaker:
Mort went in to do lie detector tests.

1482
01:14:25,252 --> 01:14:26,970
And they walked out
and they said,

1483
01:14:27,129 --> 01:14:29,757
"Boy, he passed that
with flying colors."

1484
01:14:29,924 --> 01:14:32,222
I found him in the stall.
I came in the bathroom,

1485
01:14:32,385 --> 01:14:33,887
"Yeah, Mort, where are you?
We got to go.

1486
01:14:34,053 --> 01:14:35,475
We got 10 minutes to catch a plane.

1487
01:14:35,638 --> 01:14:37,185
What's going on?"
And I pushed the door.

1488
01:14:37,348 --> 01:14:39,771
He was leaning up against it.
I opened the door and I said,

1489
01:14:39,934 --> 01:14:41,732
"What the hell happened to you?"

1490
01:14:41,894 --> 01:14:44,022
I understand why a woman

1491
01:14:44,188 --> 01:14:46,236
doesn't report she's raped
anymore, all right?

1492
01:14:46,399 --> 01:14:47,992
I understand
what you go through.

1493
01:14:50,611 --> 01:14:52,158
We have a member
of the New York State community

1494
01:14:52,321 --> 01:14:55,074
made up a story like this.
Tawana Brawley, remember that?

1495
01:14:55,241 --> 01:14:58,370
And I can't help
but liken this story to hers.

1496
01:14:59,662 --> 01:15:01,835
Langan: The "New York Post"
just happened to call.

1497
01:15:01,998 --> 01:15:03,671
"You hear what happened
to Downey?" I said, "What?"

1498
01:15:03,833 --> 01:15:05,631
Told the whole skinhead routine.

1499
01:15:05,793 --> 01:15:08,171
And I said, "Ugh.
I'd be suspicious."

1500
01:15:09,797 --> 01:15:12,971
Schoonmaker:
Langan said, "This is all bullshit."

1501
01:15:13,134 --> 01:15:15,853
Downey, Jr.:
Jim Langan, I fired him.

1502
01:15:16,012 --> 01:15:17,685
He has said that he is going

1503
01:15:17,847 --> 01:15:21,192
to tell a story on me
if I let him go.

1504
01:15:21,350 --> 01:15:23,853
I never reported his cocaine use
or anything else.

1505
01:15:24,020 --> 01:15:26,364
Well, I...

1506
01:15:26,522 --> 01:15:28,820
Try explaining that to my kids
who watched it on TV.

1507
01:15:28,983 --> 01:15:31,327
Fiancée Lori Krebs,
are you standing by your man?

1508
01:15:31,485 --> 01:15:34,079
- I sure am, 100%.
- He's innocent, huh?

1509
01:15:34,238 --> 01:15:37,287
Schoonmaker:
Lori made the statement to me,

1510
01:15:37,450 --> 01:15:41,205
"if I ever find out
that this was a lie,

1511
01:15:41,370 --> 01:15:43,464
I'm going to leave him."

1512
01:15:45,374 --> 01:15:49,220
Pittman:
We all said, "This is too crazy.

1513
01:15:49,378 --> 01:15:50,880
It's out of control."

1514
01:15:51,047 --> 01:15:52,549
Yes, <i>we</i> could make money,

1515
01:15:52,715 --> 01:15:54,217
but I didn't want to spend
the rest of my life

1516
01:15:54,383 --> 01:15:56,761
as Mort Downey's babysitter.

1517
01:15:56,927 --> 01:15:59,225
And I don't think
it's healthy for him, either.

1518
01:15:59,388 --> 01:16:00,856
That was the shark jumping.

1519
01:16:01,015 --> 01:16:02,517
Yeah, that was
the end of his career.

1520
01:16:02,683 --> 01:16:05,311
He had a couple of more
reincarnations, but that was it.

1521
01:16:05,478 --> 01:16:08,402
He rose like a rocket
and he fell like a stick.

1522
01:16:08,564 --> 01:16:11,158
And then it went down
almost as fast as it went up.

1523
01:16:11,317 --> 01:16:13,365
His star power
plummeted enormously.

1524
01:16:13,527 --> 01:16:14,995
As he would say,
"the money was on the dresser."

1525
01:16:15,154 --> 01:16:16,326
I was done with the guy.

1526
01:16:16,489 --> 01:16:18,332
"Morton Downey, Jr. Show"
was the fastest rise

1527
01:16:18,491 --> 01:16:20,164
and fall
in the history of television.

1528
01:16:27,416 --> 01:16:29,384
Boggs:
Seven years after the incident,

1529
01:16:29,543 --> 01:16:32,638
I was in California
and I called Lloyd

1530
01:16:32,797 --> 01:16:35,266
and I said,
"Can I come and see you?"

1531
01:16:35,424 --> 01:16:37,267
So I drove up the West Coast
and I had a wonderful

1532
01:16:37,426 --> 01:16:39,554
lunch with him,
we had a few drinks.

1533
01:16:39,720 --> 01:16:42,098
But there was a method
in my madness and I said,

1534
01:16:42,264 --> 01:16:43,937
"What's the story?

1535
01:16:44,100 --> 01:16:45,818
What happened in the airport?"

1536
01:16:50,981 --> 01:16:53,450
Schoonmaker: Mort said,
"I got the plan, Lloyd. I got the plan."

1537
01:16:53,609 --> 01:16:55,077
I actually threw up.

1538
01:16:55,236 --> 01:16:58,080
I was so sick over
how he was going to destroy

1539
01:16:58,239 --> 01:17:00,833
not just his career,
but my career.

1540
01:17:04,120 --> 01:17:07,465
The next day,
we stopped at a 7-Eleven

1541
01:17:07,623 --> 01:17:09,045
to get some scissors--

1542
01:17:09,208 --> 01:17:11,085
I can remember
the orange handles--

1543
01:17:11,252 --> 01:17:13,755
and a black felt pen.

1544
01:17:13,921 --> 01:17:16,140
And I said, "Oh, shit."

1545
01:17:17,341 --> 01:17:18,684
Announcer:
Good evening, everybody.

1546
01:17:18,843 --> 01:17:20,140
Welcome to
"The Morton Downey, Jr. Show."

1547
01:17:20,302 --> 01:17:22,304
Elliott:
"How sad the looking glass."

1548
01:17:22,471 --> 01:17:24,644
Raphael:
"Some words will cut like a knife."

1549
01:17:24,807 --> 01:17:26,684
Bey:
"God help you, blind man."

1550
01:17:26,851 --> 01:17:28,569
Brawley:
This is no hoax.

1551
01:17:28,727 --> 01:17:32,231
Miller: "We honor only those
our own selfish hearts destroy."

1552
01:17:33,232 --> 01:17:35,280
( shipping )

1553
01:17:36,610 --> 01:17:38,658
( marker squeaks )

1554
01:17:42,491 --> 01:17:44,289
( splashes, clatters )

1555
01:17:45,286 --> 01:17:47,288
( audience cheering )

1556
01:17:50,166 --> 01:17:51,839
( <i>hisses</i> )

1557
01:17:52,001 --> 01:17:54,379
He was wearing

1558
01:17:54,545 --> 01:17:56,923
these pants...

1559
01:17:57,089 --> 01:18:01,094
and this shirt.

1560
01:18:01,260 --> 01:18:04,605
And I think you can notice
that the swastika's not done--

1561
01:18:04,763 --> 01:18:07,141
as a matter of fact, it doesn't
even look like a swastika.

1562
01:18:07,308 --> 01:18:10,812
The rip is right here
where he said they grabbed him,

1563
01:18:10,978 --> 01:18:14,232
but I believe
it was a scissor cut.

1564
01:18:15,357 --> 01:18:17,985
Maybe I'll sell it on eBay
one of these days.

1565
01:18:18,152 --> 01:18:19,950
Believe me, if we wanted
a publicity stunt,

1566
01:18:20,112 --> 01:18:21,830
we would've done
a whole lot better than this.

1567
01:18:21,989 --> 01:18:23,241
I mean,
it was just unbelievable.

1568
01:18:23,407 --> 01:18:25,284
I have never seen him
that way before

1569
01:18:25,451 --> 01:18:26,953
and there was hair all over.

1570
01:18:27,119 --> 01:18:28,996
Schoonmaker:
Why I did it, I don't know.

1571
01:18:29,163 --> 01:18:31,541
I'm thinking of my career.

1572
01:18:31,707 --> 01:18:34,460
I hate myself for doing it
in hindsight.

1573
01:18:34,627 --> 01:18:36,379
But I did it.

1574
01:18:36,545 --> 01:18:39,674
After a while, he believed
that it really happened.

1575
01:18:39,840 --> 01:18:42,389
Next thing I knew I was reaching
for something blunt

1576
01:18:42,551 --> 01:18:44,098
that I felt against my face.

1577
01:18:44,261 --> 01:18:45,558
Schoonmaker:
That's why he didn't have any trouble

1578
01:18:45,721 --> 01:18:47,394
passing the lie detector test.

1579
01:18:47,556 --> 01:18:49,558
You know, it's really hard
to resurrect it sometimes.

1580
01:18:49,725 --> 01:18:50,942
Schoonmaker:
I don't think it had anything to do

1581
01:18:51,101 --> 01:18:53,980
with saving his show,
picking up sponsors.

1582
01:18:54,146 --> 01:18:56,319
If anything,
it would just do the opposite.

1583
01:18:56,482 --> 01:18:58,405
Lloyd said Mort did it

1584
01:18:58,567 --> 01:19:01,741
to make Lori feel sorry for him.

1585
01:19:07,618 --> 01:19:10,747
Schoonmaker: it was almost
like the injured person,

1586
01:19:10,913 --> 01:19:13,792
"Take care of me, my love.

1587
01:19:13,958 --> 01:19:17,758
I need you to come
into this world of mine."

1588
01:19:17,920 --> 01:19:19,593
If Lori sees this,
she's probably gonna be

1589
01:19:19,755 --> 01:19:21,098
really pissed at me.

1590
01:19:21,257 --> 01:19:23,885
But maybe in Lori's heart,

1591
01:19:24,051 --> 01:19:26,679
she knows I'm telling the truth.

1592
01:19:26,845 --> 01:19:28,142
I'm not lying now.

1593
01:19:38,190 --> 01:19:40,113
Let me ask a question
of our audience here.

1594
01:19:40,276 --> 01:19:42,404
How many of you
have ever seen this?

1595
01:19:42,569 --> 01:19:44,242
You know what this is?

1596
01:19:44,405 --> 01:19:45,782
Oh, yes.

1597
01:19:45,948 --> 01:19:48,918
Pittman: So if you say
what's the worst thing about it is?

1598
01:19:49,076 --> 01:19:50,498
I was associated with someone

1599
01:19:50,661 --> 01:19:52,459
that, by giving him a forum,
and giving him

1600
01:19:52,621 --> 01:19:55,249
a chance to be a celebrity,
hurt himself.

1601
01:19:55,416 --> 01:19:57,464
Dick Clark: Robert Pittman,
an executive with Mort's show,

1602
01:19:57,626 --> 01:19:59,924
and he sent Mort to hear
about an amusement park company

1603
01:20:00,087 --> 01:20:03,307
that designs rides
named after celebrities.

1604
01:20:03,465 --> 01:20:06,560
We are building attractions
around personalities.

1605
01:20:06,719 --> 01:20:08,187
That sounds to me
like that could be something

1606
01:20:08,345 --> 01:20:09,471
that could disappear real fast,

1607
01:20:09,638 --> 01:20:11,640
a celebrity today
and a zero tomorrow.

1608
01:20:11,807 --> 01:20:13,684
That's true, except
that I think you're here to stay.

1609
01:20:13,851 --> 01:20:15,649
I think you're entering
superstar status.

1610
01:20:15,811 --> 01:20:17,063
Pittman:
My regret is

1611
01:20:17,229 --> 01:20:20,278
Mort would have been
in a better place as a human being...

1612
01:20:20,441 --> 01:20:21,613
Man: This we envision
as being interactive.

1613
01:20:21,775 --> 01:20:23,903
...If he had never
had that opportunity.

1614
01:20:24,069 --> 01:20:25,537
You've been had, man.

1615
01:20:25,696 --> 01:20:28,870
This is "TV's Bloopers
& Practical Jokes"!

1616
01:20:34,496 --> 01:20:37,875
The first time I really got
reconnected with Sean at all,

1617
01:20:38,042 --> 01:20:41,296
it was announced
that he had lung cancer.

1618
01:20:43,130 --> 01:20:45,303
Pittman:
We talked, I felt terrible.

1619
01:20:45,466 --> 01:20:48,766
But in the back of my mind,
you always had to wonder,

1620
01:20:48,927 --> 01:20:50,474
was it true?

1621
01:20:50,637 --> 01:20:52,890
I don't know if a show like this
has ever been done

1622
01:20:53,057 --> 01:20:55,856
with someone having
surgery the next day

1623
01:20:56,018 --> 01:20:57,941
to save his life
and the doctor performing it

1624
01:20:58,103 --> 01:21:01,528
and all of it live
and people calling in.

1625
01:21:01,690 --> 01:21:04,739
I really salute you, Mort,
for agreeing to this.

1626
01:21:04,902 --> 01:21:07,121
I salute you
for letting us do this.

1627
01:21:07,279 --> 01:21:10,579
It's a hunger. I mean,
would you have a lung operation

1628
01:21:10,741 --> 01:21:12,038
and then go be on Larry King?

1629
01:21:12,201 --> 01:21:15,671
Would you do that?
Would you call that sane?

1630
01:21:15,829 --> 01:21:17,957
I know--
I know he's gonna beat it.

1631
01:21:18,123 --> 01:21:20,046
I know he's gonna beat it

1632
01:21:20,209 --> 01:21:22,803
and I'm really proud of him.

1633
01:21:22,961 --> 01:21:26,761
I've heard from so many people,
but the biggest surprise of all

1634
01:21:26,924 --> 01:21:29,677
was I got the most beautiful letter

1635
01:21:29,843 --> 01:21:31,720
from Edward Moore Kennedy,

1636
01:21:31,887 --> 01:21:33,855
Teddy Kennedy,

1637
01:21:34,014 --> 01:21:35,311
who-- he and I have been
politically fighting,

1638
01:21:35,474 --> 01:21:37,897
<i>as</i> you know, for 15 years.

1639
01:21:38,060 --> 01:21:41,405
Miller: Sean popped in the office,
which I hadn't expected.

1640
01:21:41,563 --> 01:21:43,281
All of a sudden he walked
in the door and there he was

1641
01:21:43,440 --> 01:21:45,408
and I just gave him a big hug.

1642
01:21:45,567 --> 01:21:47,490
And he was in coat and tie

1643
01:21:47,653 --> 01:21:49,576
and did a lot of thinking

1644
01:21:49,738 --> 01:21:52,332
about what mattered to him.

1645
01:21:52,491 --> 01:21:55,370
Now I've got lung cancer
and I could die.

1646
01:21:55,536 --> 01:21:58,415
What really bothers me
is I won't be around

1647
01:21:58,580 --> 01:22:01,208
to see my two-and-a-half-year-old
grow up

1648
01:22:01,375 --> 01:22:04,549
and say "No" to smoking.

1649
01:22:04,711 --> 01:22:07,430
Mr. Chairman, Senators,

1650
01:22:07,589 --> 01:22:09,512
American Lung Association.

1651
01:22:09,675 --> 01:22:11,973
Friends,
like 3,000 kids every day,

1652
01:22:12,136 --> 01:22:15,390
I began smoking
at the age of about 13.

1653
01:22:15,556 --> 01:22:18,275
And to think I was a role model
for cigarette-smoking youth,

1654
01:22:18,434 --> 01:22:20,903
even signing my name
on their cigarettes.

1655
01:22:22,229 --> 01:22:24,652
It was really hard for him

1656
01:22:24,815 --> 01:22:28,445
because that whole smoking thing

1657
01:22:28,610 --> 01:22:31,614
was, you know, another part
of that personality.

1658
01:22:31,780 --> 01:22:35,876
To that generation,
I beg your forgiveness.

1659
01:22:36,034 --> 01:22:38,162
May the next generation
have kinder and wiser

1660
01:22:38,328 --> 01:22:40,205
role models than I was.

1661
01:22:40,372 --> 01:22:41,669
Thank you, thank you.

1662
01:22:41,832 --> 01:22:44,711
Reynolds: He was a better person
than when I first met him.

1663
01:22:44,877 --> 01:22:47,005
More conscientious,

1664
01:22:47,171 --> 01:22:48,718
less full of crap.

1665
01:22:48,881 --> 01:22:51,760
He called me and said,
"They're gonna take out a lung."

1666
01:22:51,925 --> 01:22:55,020
And I said, "Holy shit,
take out a lung?"

1667
01:22:55,179 --> 01:22:56,476
Are you scared?

1668
01:22:56,638 --> 01:22:58,936
Yeah, I am.

1669
01:22:59,099 --> 01:23:01,067
But a lot of your people
write me nice letters

1670
01:23:01,226 --> 01:23:03,024
and I've got
a lot of nice friends.

1671
01:23:03,187 --> 01:23:06,236
And I keep working.
I work every single day.

1672
01:23:06,398 --> 01:23:08,321
You're going to watch
your girl grow up, Mort.

1673
01:23:08,484 --> 01:23:09,576
Thank you.

1674
01:23:09,735 --> 01:23:11,328
Morton Downey, Jr.

1675
01:23:11,487 --> 01:23:14,286
lt just killed me because
I really loved him, you know.

1676
01:23:14,448 --> 01:23:16,792
I really--
I really did.

1677
01:23:16,950 --> 01:23:18,918
You love him or you hate him.
Well, I kind of did both.

1678
01:23:19,077 --> 01:23:21,956
You were the king
of controversial television.

1679
01:23:22,122 --> 01:23:24,170
What do you think about what's
going on in television today?

1680
01:23:24,333 --> 01:23:25,755
Well, Bobbi,
it's all entertainment

1681
01:23:25,918 --> 01:23:27,386
and there's nothing wrong
with entertainment.

1682
01:23:27,544 --> 01:23:29,217
That's not reality.

1683
01:23:29,379 --> 01:23:32,258
Allred: In having advocates
for civil rights,

1684
01:23:32,424 --> 01:23:33,767
for women and minorities...

1685
01:23:33,926 --> 01:23:36,600
Reality is having a fight
on the Downey show

1686
01:23:36,762 --> 01:23:38,105
with Al Sharpton.

1687
01:23:38,263 --> 01:23:40,186
Reality is presenting
Gloria Allred

1688
01:23:40,349 --> 01:23:42,317
to the world
for the first time,

1689
01:23:42,476 --> 01:23:43,853
Professor Alan Dershowitz.

1690
01:23:44,019 --> 01:23:45,771
...perhaps he had done
something important

1691
01:23:45,938 --> 01:23:48,066
that went beyond
a television show.

1692
01:23:48,232 --> 01:23:49,529
I was sitting home one day

1693
01:23:49,691 --> 01:23:51,238
and the phone rang
and I was shocked.

1694
01:23:51,401 --> 01:23:55,827
It was Mort Downey calling me
in a low, weak voice.

1695
01:23:55,989 --> 01:24:00,495
To single out Israel for criticism
is anti-Semitism.

1696
01:24:00,661 --> 01:24:03,790
- To consider it comparatively--
- That is the cry, Alan.

1697
01:24:03,956 --> 01:24:06,209
Dershowitz:
He just wanted to remind me

1698
01:24:06,375 --> 01:24:08,093
of our earlier days

1699
01:24:08,252 --> 01:24:11,096
and ask me if there's anything
I needed from him

1700
01:24:11,255 --> 01:24:13,633
before he departed this world.

1701
01:24:13,799 --> 01:24:15,517
That is America!

1702
01:24:15,676 --> 01:24:18,270
Dershowitz: I told him
that I thought he had contributed

1703
01:24:18,428 --> 01:24:20,305
a lot to television...

1704
01:24:20,472 --> 01:24:23,726
I stood next to Malcolm X--

1705
01:24:23,892 --> 01:24:27,237
Dershowitz: ...for unrepresented
and disenfranchised people.

1706
01:24:27,396 --> 01:24:30,024
Don't tell me what you did.
Tell me what you're doing.

1707
01:24:30,190 --> 01:24:31,737
Dershowitz: He seemed
to appreciate hearing that.

1708
01:24:31,900 --> 01:24:34,369
Particularly, he said
he didn't hear that so often

1709
01:24:34,528 --> 01:24:38,499
from people like me.

1710
01:24:38,657 --> 01:24:42,207
I was there for a week
while he was in the hospital.

1711
01:24:42,369 --> 01:24:44,371
He was on life support.

1712
01:24:44,538 --> 01:24:48,463
And I couldn't really tell
if he knew I was there.

1713
01:24:48,625 --> 01:24:52,095
And then Lori called me
and said, "He's gone."

1714
01:24:57,175 --> 01:25:00,019
King: Lori Downey, the widow
of Morton Downey, Jr.

1715
01:25:00,178 --> 01:25:01,896
When is the funeral, Lori?

1716
01:25:02,055 --> 01:25:05,184
Lori:
Um, it's on Saturday.

1717
01:25:05,350 --> 01:25:07,648
- King: Open to the public?
- Yes.

1718
01:25:10,731 --> 01:25:12,074
Schoonmaker:
He was the Blue Collar King

1719
01:25:12,232 --> 01:25:14,360
and the people loved him.

1720
01:25:14,526 --> 01:25:17,826
So I was surprised
there weren't more people there.

1721
01:25:17,988 --> 01:25:19,786
Gloria Allred was there.

1722
01:25:22,743 --> 01:25:24,745
Maybe Jim Langan,
maybe Bill Boggs,

1723
01:25:24,911 --> 01:25:26,834
maybe some
of the producers at WOR,

1724
01:25:26,997 --> 01:25:29,841
but maybe they were
so angry at him.

1725
01:25:31,877 --> 01:25:34,096
Downey, Jr.: You know,
the question is always asked

1726
01:25:34,254 --> 01:25:36,097
why people responded actively

1727
01:25:36,256 --> 01:25:39,260
to certain people throughout history.

1728
01:25:39,426 --> 01:25:42,430
People responded to the Beatles
and no one knew why.

1729
01:25:42,596 --> 01:25:44,769
Was it their long hair?
To Elvis Presley.

1730
01:25:46,266 --> 01:25:49,691
Some people who have no other
word for it call it "charisma."

1731
01:25:49,853 --> 01:25:52,902
I would have kicked
your fucking nuts out.

1732
01:25:53,065 --> 01:25:55,033
Someone said I was the first
rock and roll star

1733
01:25:55,192 --> 01:25:57,160
to come along without music.

1734
01:25:57,319 --> 01:26:00,072
I'll make Al Sharpton
look like a piece of shit

1735
01:26:00,238 --> 01:26:01,410
the way I take care of you.

1736
01:26:01,573 --> 01:26:04,793
That's interesting.
Maybe that's true.

1737
01:26:04,951 --> 01:26:08,296
( Music playing )

1738
01:26:12,584 --> 01:26:14,632
Mort's legacy
is easy to describe.

1739
01:26:14,795 --> 01:26:18,470
Mort's legacy is passion plays
on television

1740
01:26:18,632 --> 01:26:20,350
even if it's an act.

1741
01:26:20,509 --> 01:26:23,137
It's a free market
and you gotta ask yourself,

1742
01:26:23,303 --> 01:26:27,149
the people obviously want
what they're getting

1743
01:26:27,307 --> 01:26:29,059
or they'd be getting
something else.

1744
01:26:30,310 --> 01:26:32,438
...the Father, and of the Son...

1745
01:26:34,606 --> 01:26:36,074
Schoonmaker:
They had a lot of balloons outside.

1746
01:26:36,233 --> 01:26:38,156
It was just a beautiful day.

1747
01:26:41,613 --> 01:26:43,832
I sang,
♪ I can see clearly now ♪

1748
01:26:43,990 --> 01:26:47,620
♪ The rain has-- ♪
and they let loose all the balloons.

1749
01:26:47,786 --> 01:26:49,959
That was--
that was the end of Mort.

1750
01:26:50,122 --> 01:26:54,252
♪ I can see all obstacles in my way ♪

1751
01:26:57,379 --> 01:26:59,973
♪ Gone are the dark clouds... ♪

1752
01:27:00,132 --> 01:27:01,634
Man:
Those programs

1753
01:27:01,800 --> 01:27:03,552
do appeal to certain audiences.

1754
01:27:03,719 --> 01:27:06,643
I'm not questioning the right
of those shows to run on the air.

1755
01:27:06,805 --> 01:27:08,432
From my standpoint,

1756
01:27:08,598 --> 01:27:11,898
integrity and quality still have
a place in the American home.

1757
01:27:12,060 --> 01:27:13,733
I'm going to stop you both
because we're down

1758
01:27:13,895 --> 01:27:16,739
to about 45 seconds and I want
to get a final comment.

1759
01:27:16,898 --> 01:27:20,277
Is this a passing fancy
or is this the front of the wave?

1760
01:27:22,571 --> 01:27:24,573
( Music playing )

1761
01:27:34,750 --> 01:27:37,094
♪ On Geraldo's talk show ♪

1762
01:27:37,252 --> 01:27:39,880
♪ He broke a chair with his nose ♪

1763
01:27:40,046 --> 01:27:45,052
♪ Al Capone looked on with a grin ♪

1764
01:27:45,218 --> 01:27:48,392
♪ And every lonely hausfrau ♪

1765
01:27:48,555 --> 01:27:51,149
♪ And sofa-bound cow ♪

1766
01:27:51,308 --> 01:27:55,063
♪ Watched Oprah
before she turned thin ♪

1767
01:27:56,438 --> 01:27:59,282
♪ Richard Bey dug drag queens ♪

1768
01:27:59,441 --> 01:28:01,819
♪ Sally saved troubled teens ♪

1769
01:28:01,985 --> 01:28:06,912
♪ But politics wasn't their thing ♪

1770
01:28:07,073 --> 01:28:09,542
♪ After Downey's debut ♪

1771
01:28:09,701 --> 01:28:12,625
♪ We asked, "Dona-who?" ♪

1772
01:28:12,788 --> 01:28:16,964
♪ A new mouth had become our king ♪

1773
01:28:19,920 --> 01:28:23,140
♪ Morton Downey ♪

1774
01:28:25,050 --> 01:28:28,645
♪ Not the singer ♪

1775
01:28:30,305 --> 01:28:33,605
♪ Talk-show icon ♪

1776
01:28:35,435 --> 01:28:38,689
♪ Predated Springer ♪

1777
01:28:40,482 --> 01:28:44,282
♪ Al and Tawana ♪

1778
01:28:46,404 --> 01:28:49,783
♪ Bush and Dukakis ♪

1779
01:28:51,743 --> 01:28:55,964
♪ At the Loudmouth ♪

1780
01:28:56,122 --> 01:28:59,672
♪ In downtown Secaucus ♪

1781
01:28:59,835 --> 01:29:04,466
♪ Oh-oh-oh-oh-hh ♪

1782
01:29:05,674 --> 01:29:08,268
♪ At the late night ♪

1783
01:29:08,426 --> 01:29:12,806
♪ Morton Downey, Jr. Show ♪

1784
01:29:12,973 --> 01:29:15,647
♪ I wanna go ♪

1785
01:29:15,809 --> 01:29:19,655
♪ Oh-oh-oh-oh ♪

1786
01:29:21,189 --> 01:29:23,908
♪ To the late night ♪

1787
01:29:24,067 --> 01:29:30,575
♪ Morton Downey, Jr. Show. ♪