I saw this when it happened (many, many years ago), but can’t remember the guest’s name. David Letterman, circa 1988 – 1991. The guest was male. He was, apparently, drunk (or otherwise impaired). Dave would ask a question, he would attempt a reply, but veered off to gibberish and non-words.
The one specific thing I remember is the guest was apparently getting edgy about some of Dave’s questions. So Dave asked him what *he *wanted to talk about.
“Something… safe. Like boats. Sailboats. Let’s talk about sailboats.” Something like that. (Editors note: the guest had nothing to do with sailboats or sailing. He was an actor or something.)
Tony Danza and Robert Blake were often on talk shows when they were drunk or high in that time period. IIRC they used to serve alcoholic drinks in the green room(s) of major talk shows and more or less drunk guests were not a rarity. I think they stopped that a few years ago.
I remember seeing a video of Crispin Glover on Letterman. I don’t remember the specifics, except at one point he wanted to try some karate moves on Dave, but it was a very weird interview. IIRC the video details said that he was on LSD, but according to wikipediait was apparently just a character Glover was doing; I’d wager it was both.
I remember Jan Michael Vincent saying that sort of drunken/stoned babbling, but that was on Geraldo ;apparently he and Geraldo had gone sailing together in the past, and he went off on this whole ‘sailing and sailboats’ tangent.
Thanks **Jettboy **(et al). I could’ve sworn it was on Letterman, so long ago I can hardly remember, and I don’t care for Geraldo and don’t watch him so I don’t think that was it. (Maybe, but I doubt it.)
Yes, the Crispin Glover thing was amusing, but that’s not the one I was referring to.
I’m curious if anyone remembers (and can find a clip of) the guy with the exotic poultry, because there a moment in that segment that had me paralyzed with laugher for a good ten minutes and cracks me up even now.
Brooks died in '01, so it’s plausible. Since the OP wasn’t completely positive it was Letterman, I took a WAG. Plus, Brooks has a safe boating routine on You Tube.
I recall Oliver Reed being drunk and incoherent on Letterman’s show once, but I don’t remember whether he mentioned sailboats. The next guest complimented Letterman for doing a good segment with Foster Brooks.
One time Sam Phillips was on (of Sun Records fame) and they had to hustle him off early because he was so drunk.
This sounds very similar to an episode my mother told me she saw (would have been the right time frame, too). The guest was kind of a big guy, maybe someone playing a gangster or tough guy in a new movie (she didn’t know his name, so it probably wasn’t anyone very famous), and she said he kept jerking his head around like he was seeing elves running around the set. Dave made a comment about his behavior and he immediately got edgy and hostile.