George Carlin: I would see Danny Kaye.  And, especially in the group of movies around 1947, when I was ten.  And I can see now, if I look back at things that were popular in 1947, that was my critical year, that was tenth—the year of my tenth birthday.  That was the year that songs were on the hit parade I’ve looked back that I know inspired me.  “Mañana.”  May have been a little bit later, fifth grade, eleven years old, so that’s the next year.  I sang “Mañana” at school.  Danny Kaye, in 1947 I believe was ‘Kid from Brooklyn,’ was one of the one’s where he does song and—songs and dance and that incredible verbal facility for fast talking and complicated lyrics.  And I would see at the end of the movie, when the credits would roll, that the lyrics and so forth the songs were by Sylvia Fine.  I didn’t know she was his wife.  And I would write to MGM, to Sylvia Fine, and ask for the words to some of these things. [sings a fast melody]  And I forget them now.  I know them when I see the movies again, but I don’t recall them now.  And I never got an answer, of course.  And it was a mystery to me.  But I—I liked him and wanted to emulate him.  And I never used really the words ‘hero’ or—or any of that kind of stuff.  But he was kind of an ideal to shoot for.  He did things I wanted to do: he made funny faces, he made funny voices, and he was incredibly facile in verbally.  So—I think I used that right—so, I wanted to be like Danny Kaye.  And I called that being an actor at the time, that time of my life that meant ‘actor.’  The word ‘comedian’ didn’t—hadn’t really gelled yet in my mind firmly.

Cheech Marin: Oh yeah well “Kingfish” was the, was the scammer and he was always trying to sell Andy Brown something, Andy Brown was the kind of slowest guy and he had somebody working for his din- and Kingfish was the president of Mystic Nights of the Sea Lodge all and, and Luther was trying to sell him a pair of binoculars and so he’s looking at the binoculars and he’s, “Hmm, see that building across the street?”  “Yeah.”  “Hmm, there’s an ant crawling up that building.  Hmm.  Got something in his mouth.  Hmm, a crumb of bread.  Let’s see, whole wheat.” Just cracked me up.  They just had the most absurd humor and I was kind of – black humor’s real surreal.  Sometimes very abstract.  And I had caught onto that early because you know, I was so hammered by it.

Larry Gelbart: He always looked like he had been sucking on a lemon. He had this real literally sour puss. He was very literate and we’re in a very post-literate society now. He was about words. He was primarily an author who was best, the best interpreter of his own words. He wouldn’t survive for a second in today’s you know, stampede toward wherever we’re heading so quickly. He was an acquired taste. You didn’t turn him on and say I like this guy. You turned him on and said I like what this guy is saying.

Bernie Brillstein: He wanted to be a rock ‘n roller, he loved rock ‘n roll, he loved the blues, but he really wanted to be a rock ‘n roll singer, is really what he wanted.  And he represented the rock n’ roll era, I mean he really did in a strange way more than the comedy era.  He represents those seventies, you know?  And he was a great comedian.  His timing, his eye, his looks, and I tried to make him a real star in Continental Divide, and I loved it.  A lot of people didn’t show up, but I thought he was Spencer Tracy, I swear I did.  And he could have been.  I don’t know what he would be doing today, but he was fantastic.  You come across these guys very rarely, but he had that stuff, you know, sometimes, it’s like a sparkler.  On July fourth, they go out.  Some of these guys give off vibes when you walk down the street, and everyone knows they’re there.  A lot of stars can walk into places, no one knows they’re there.  And other stars can walk into places, no one know they’re there.  And it’s great, I’d rather be the second guy, but John, everyone knew was around.  Not by anything he did, he just walked like Belushi, acted like Belushi, and dressed like Belushi.  And he was Belushi, and everyone knew it, you know?  He was just bigger than life.  And that’s, you know, that’s his fault, but he was – spectacular.

Max Mutchnick: I mean if Will & Grace, if Will & Grace made me proud of anything I, I mean now because it’s over I guess I could say I am proud that we kept a dignified gay man who lives with a great deal of integrity at the center of a of a television series for eight years, you know. I always got a lot of heat that we didn’t take the character far enough. That we didn’t see the character sexualize himself enough. And my thinking was always let’s just keep the guy on television. Let’s just show people that this man can exist and that he can be your neighbor, he can be your doctor or he can be your son and we can learn to live with that. And I was I think I was most pleased that the show just stayed on the air. That’s what I’m really proud of.

Alan Buz Kohan: Fred was the thinking man’s comedian. And he was just so bright. And there, again, I’m sure he had a much bigger hand in the writing of the shows than a lot of the other comics who relied on the writers.     And I just I just don’t know if I, I may have this right, but some things stick in your mind even though, you know, a half a century or more has passed. And I remember one radio show where Fred, he used to play a character like a Charlie Chan character, it was called One Long Pan. And he was a detective. And there was a crime being committed at the circus. And he was called in to solve the crime. And the crime was that the, the contortionist had been killed, murdered, and he was found him in the shape of an R. He had bent his body in the shape of an R because he would do the whole alphabet, that was his, his act. And One Long Pan looked at the situation and he figured out who the murderer was and why the crime was committed. And the solution was that the contortionist wife killed him because she didn’t wanna see him make an S of himself. And I still remember for no reason. I, I don’t know many contortionists. I haven’t been to the circus in years. But certain jokes, certain lines, certain things stand out and that was one and that’s a well thought out joke, you know. It’s really you’ve gotta think about that to come up with it in the first place.

Jack Klugman: Well I think everybody can identify with it.  If you got two of the neatest persons in the world, one is a little neater than the other.  So, to him, that guy’s a slob.  So, clean and dirty is very, very important in people’s lives.  Orderly – I have a son.  If he went into your house, first I have to do when I go over to my son’s, I have to take off my shoes.  He’ll fix your pictures, he’ll straighten them out, he does everything.  He must be in control, he’s a control freak.  That’s what he is.  And the other guy is sloppy.  And Tony understood that.  When – he never was, and I say he was neat for himself – he was trying to help you.  His sounds were wonderful.  He knew what comedy was.  I mean he – when he, his sinuses clogged and he made that sound.  And went crazy.  And nobody ever made that sound the way he did.  Jack Leonard, nobody ever did.  So it’s – he understood comedy, and he understood it very, very well.  And that’s why I think we were a big success.

Rose Marie: She came on.  She was a very ambitious girl.  She came on, the first day of the set, and said, “I’m going to have my own company, called MTM.  And I’m going to have a little pussycat instead of a lion.  And I looked at her, and I said, “This is a first show.  This is a pilot.  We don’t even know whether this is gonna go.”  You know.  But she was very ambitious.  And she accomplished what she wanted to accomplish.   She went to– movies after that.  And then she did guest shots.  And then she went to Broadway and did a– Breakfast at Tiffany’s.  Which– was the– never got on.  And then she came back and she said she was gonna try and do another series. And she did her new– that series that became a– a hit.  And– as I say, very ambitious girl.  From the day one.  And– and very, very sure of herself, of what she was gonna do and how she was gonna do it.  And it all came out.  You know.

Anne Beatts: You know the wonderful thing about Gilda Radner was that she was not a person who disappointed.  You know there are some famous people, and I’ve met them, who you might think are great and then you meet them and you discover that they not only have feet but heads of clay.  And Gilda was the same with everyone.  So, if you did accost Gilda — and she was always very gracious – you would, you would get Gilda.  You know.  She just had this amazing persona and I think she really was akin to say Lucy, and to some degree Judy Garland, because she had this desire to be loved.  And people really responded to that.  I mean she was like, “Love me love me love me love me.”  And that came across.  And you know, she was, she was naturally funny.  And she would do anything, I mean, she would bang into the wall.  And did.  And she said that her comedy – she once said that, you know she thought that comedy originated for her with, which, when you’re little and you fall down on the ice?  And people might laugh at you so you try and make it seem like you fell on purpose?  [Laughs.]  And that was kind of, like, part of the root of her comedy.

George Shapiro: Jack Welch and Bob Wright really wanted a tenth year.  And we had a meeting with Howard West and myself and Jerry and Bob Wright and Jack Welch, you know, he was the chairman of General Electric. Like the biggest entrepreneur in the world. And we had this breakfast on the thirty-eighth floor overlooking Central Park; we had engraved, you know, menus. And Jack Welch was there – he was pitching Jerry, it was just the opposite. He had charts, “Look how it went up, it went way past ‘Home Improvement’, all the shows – it’s still growing in its ninth year.” And he wrote on a little piece of paper, you know, what he was offering Jerry. And he handed it to Jerry and – whew! Do you want to know what it was?  Okay, because I think it’s been out already. It was five million an episode for twenty-two episodes. To do the tenth year. And Jerry said, “let’s talk.” You know, we went for a walk. Howard, Jerry and I went for a walk in Central Park, and we sat down on the bench on eight-first street and Central Park West, the same bench where he told his father he wanted to be a comedian. So anyway Jerry sits down, he said, “You know, as a standup comedian, you know, you feel you’re getting a standing ovation. And that’s the time to leave. You don’t want to stay on stage too long. You don’t want to stay on like another fifteen minutes so they say ‘Oh he was good but he was on a little long.’” He said, “My deepest gut, you know, is to leave now. Despite the offer and everything else.” So I was happy ‘cause I said, “This is a great – to go off like that and for the future you have that. Nothing – no one can ever take that away from you.