Wayne Kline

Wayne Kline talks about growing up with a Methodist minister as a father; Max Schulman; reading because his family couldn't afford a TV; Woody Allen; John Oliver; Alfred Hitchcock; Get Smart; Gilligan's Island; Ginger v. Mary Anne; Dobie Gillis; becoming an Army reserve; selling jokes to George Kirby; never being able to imitate Ed Sullivan; writing The Ed Sullivan Show to sell jokes; reading about the Improv in a newspaper; going on vacation to New York to sell jokes to comedians; Walter Alston; selling a routine to Freddie Prinze; leaving NY for LA; joke structure; winning enough to live off for two years on a gamed show; Ed Bluestone introduces him to Henry Bear & Doug Kenney; writing for the National Lampoon Radio Hour; losing on getting SNL to Alan Zweibel; writing for Jimmy Walker; Rodney Dangerfield; punching up a Doc script leads to his first sitcom; Byron Allen; Helen Kushnick; David Letterman's writing ability; how Wayne saw the talent of Robin Williams on Laugh In; Lenny Schultz; Fernwood Tonight; Fred Willard; One in a Million; Norman Paul; room written shows; Jay Leno's Tonight Show was a feed the hopper show; how Bill Scheft and the Underwear Bomber got Wayne a job with Letterman; being advised by Ross Abrash; trying to beat Mulholland and Barrie for jokes in the monologue; head writer Steve Young; submitting for Bill maher; Curb Your Enthusiasm; Larry David getting him a job copying documents; writing a spec scene for Seinfeld and being told it was too sitcommy; Larry Charles; the horror that was Thicke of the Night and Late Show with Joan Rivers; Joan is replaced by Arsenio Hall; Wayne gets fired then hired by Jay Leno with jokes from a monologue he was going to use; being hired as a full time Tonight Show writer working when Jay Leno guest hosts; Joe Toplyn; how to get into show business; Christopher and David Lloyd; loses jobs to Twitter users; Alan Thicke stories; Jay v. Dave: personalities