Robin Williams | The Complete "Pioneers of Television" Interview | Steven J Boettcher

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Robin Williams talks about improvising in high school, his time at Julliard, working with Christopher Reeve and John Housman, developing standup, "Mork and Mindy," Pam Dawber, Richard Pryor, Jonathon Winters, Johnny Carson, Mort Sahl, "Happy Days," "Good Will Hunting," "Awakenings," "Good Morning Vietnam," entertaining the troops in Afghanistan, and Shakespeare.
Director: Steven J Boettcher
Star: Robin Williams
► About Pioneers of Television
Television’s beloved stars bring their stories to life, offering insider tales and surprising revelations you won’t hear anywhere else. The Emmy-nominated producers of Pioneers of Television open the vault to give you exclusive access.
#PioneersofTelevision #CelebrityInterviews #RobinWilliams

[@jenniferkelly6518]

He is so badly missed. Pure Genius.

[@kendallevans4079]

That word "genius" has been so abused it should apply for witness protection...He was a good comic, period....save that word for the researchers coming up with cures for terminal diseases

[@deborahklinlger8565]

@@kendallevans4079 Have control issues?

[@kendallevans4079]

@@deborahklinlger8565 You do? Seek help then

[@deborahklinlger8565]

Same back to you!!!!

[@isaackennethmusic]

Watching Robin work was like witnessing the Northern Lights, or spectating as Michael Jordan played basketball, or hearing Aretha Franklin sing. Untamed perfection every time.

[@tarnopol]

I don’t know-Robin was funnier than all three.

[@matthewh.9544]

When he's calm and discussing his life, he's so interesting and intelligent. I'd love to have sat with him and chatted about his life. Such a shame and a loss.

[@starclone4]

Our world is such a lonely place.... We all miss you Robin. R.I.P. !!!!

[@matthewnachel7112]

Just think if he was still alive today the comic genius that he is would be having us rolling around, laughing and crying from the pandemic to the election and everything else. God I wish Robin Williams was still alive right now we need his comedy more than ever before.

[@joe-vz6hx]

wow...I've never seen him this straightforward for this long, how rare and fantastic. love this series, esp the way it was done, huge props

[@SPRPhilly]

I haven't started to watch this and I don't know if I can. There was always something about Robin Williams that spoke to me in a way that impacted me on a very deep level. My first real exposure to him was Mork and Mindy, whenever that came out. I would've been around ten years old. At some point, the era around Comic Relief then into Dead Poet's Society and Good Morning Vietnam probably, I became very aware that there was something about Robin Williams that was really familiar. I was fascinated by the fact that such an outrageous persona could be molded into such deep and meaningful characters without losing the Robin Williams undercurrent. I don't know if that makes any sense, I'm just doing a chain of thought thing. What Dreams May Come, The Fisher King (a beautiful performance), Toys (remember Toys?), hell, even Hook were performances that communicated something to me that I just can't put my finger on but is really familiar. And then comes Good Will Hunting. And dontchya know, his speech to Matt Damon on that park bench? I lost my wife to cancer coming up on 9 years ago. We lived just outside of Boston. It's a scene I still won't watch to this day. I didn't even like his stand up all that much, but I understood completely what made him what he was. I am very similar - minus the success and all that success entails. It's still like a punch in the gut when I see stuff like this, and I struggle to watch. I miss Robin Williams.

[@strats991]

What a treat to show us this interview! An icon I'll forever miss.

[@moejaime2654]

I MISS YOU ROBIN YOU WERE ONE OF THE GREATS OF COMEDY !

[@landztranz]

One of a kind! Thank you, Robin (R.I.P.)!

[@stevendavid5370]

I miss him so much. So funny and wise at the same time. He genuine in his caring about people.

[@marshakenne8847]

He's such a Great Talent

[@v.gorski3050]

Nice to hear about his very beginnings in television. I saw the Happy Days start but never knew all the details of his specific start in the Mork & Mindy show. I think to see him at Juilliard would have been such a great experience! Oh… to be a fly on the wall, as they say. I think I would have loved to see Mr. Williams do Shakespeare…… what a treat that would be !!

[@anthonygray2671]

I really enjoy his sense of humour 😄 👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾

[@Gamzor]

Robin is looking great lately. Nice to see him healthy.

[@lionheartroar3104]

I miss Robin as if he were family. Amazing on and off the screen.

[@Topspin89]

It's so adorable at 15:30 the way he giggles when he hears the interviewer start to laugh at the Mort Sahl joke about the drunk claiming he can satisfy a woman. You see the sweetness and kindness in his eyes there.

[@bmelanyr]

This interview is so awesome!!

[@loveeveryone8057]

I miss that wonderful actor....so grateful that he came to Earth to share his love

[@michaelnerby8129]

Legend here 🙏🏻❤️

[@timmc8444]

Incredible talent

[@davidoswald5749]

One of a kind person, we will never have another Robin Williams, or even close to what he was, I reckon.

[@8WeePawz]

Such smiling eyes

[@georgelien]

My favorite Entertainer period. I sure miss him.

[@annademo]

An absolute genius.

[@bartman898]

Mr. Williams and Mr. Winters gave me permission to do and say crazy things to make people laugh.....there is nothing better than someone saying to you "thank you I really needed a laugh."

[@retf054ewte3]

everybody loved him, and loves now 😪

[@kendramazzu2690]

This man was the love of my life he just didn’t know it yet

[@vassa1972]

Rip to Robin Williams and his family, he was great

[@MeMe-pj8ve]

RIP to his family? They’re not dead yet.

[@vassa1972]

@@MeMe-pj8ve I said that because I'm now 49 years old and a stroke and cardiac arrest survivor myself was born with a whole in my heart

[@vassa1972]

@@MeMe-pj8ve sorry no offense

[@MeMe-pj8ve]

@@vassa1972 what does that have to do with telling Robin Williams’ family to Rest In Peace? Again, they aren’t dead.

[@vassa1972]

@@MeMe-pj8ve nothing sorry I was just a fan of Robin Williams sorry

[@pjbassman2253]

We love you Robin.

[@darrelkinney9856]

Cool video I’ve seen some of his comedy videos, wild funny. Wish he was still here with us. We need a lot more laughter .

[@zovalentine7305]

Rest in powerful peace my favorite celebrity and homie of all time Robin McLaurin Williams 🙏

[@lunaholiday8585]

He says he left Juliard, but that’s not quite the case; he was told they couldn’t teach him anything else. That’s how good he was.

[@lylewyant3356]

Wearing the suit backwards was one of my most memorable scenes.

[@andythrush3341]

Man, I miss Robin!

[@DLCSTexas]

I have what robin had - bipolar disorder. I didn’t know he had it years ago as I didn’t know I had it either. He sacrificed his life to get a laugh or if you want to say to make people laugh. I could look back on my life and his and saw the see-saw of mania (and racing thoughts) and depression. It lookEd like to me - when he wanted humor with quick whit and fast talking he would go off prescribed medication or his addicted drugs that would bring on his natural fast humor.like good morning viet nam.when he wanted drama he took the mood stabilizers and antipsychotic meds. This replacement of the missing natural dopamean brought him to sanity. He did it but that was not his favorite where the drugs we’re presiptated in the neurotransmitters. Most people with bipolar know the high and some like it better than sanity. Being high is funnier than the other. He manipulated this seesaw. It was the life he lived. You can’t say it’s why he died, but you can’t say that him messing with his brain resulting in the many things that were wrong with him when he died. I was misdiagnosed at 29. Found out the disorder at 32. From 32 to 45 had 15 episodes. The last one I caught in the middle of it, but I cycled all those years. Robin was playing patty cake with a serious mental illness. His speech in this interview -- he’s going in and out of humor and proper speech. He’s done it for so long you don’t know if he’s medicated or not. The Lewis body dementia (sp) causes suicide not the bipolar. And he had Parkinson’s. What in the world had happened to him at the end. Doctors probably know what happened to him, but this genius body and mind paid for his not following the rules of someone with mental illness way year s back. Look how good Britney Spears did with a family that abused her.she was probably all around the “yes” people but she handles her career. And tried really ha rd to love her children. Bipolar without stablelizing meds is Robin Williams. I loved him.

[@joanbrenton8593]

Before we knew he had bi-polar disorder or was doing coke and what not, I felt the roller coaster when he was on late night talk shows. It was painful.

[@davidk7575]

My son did improv at University, great group of kids. No one as talented as Robin though, hyper - active brain!

[@ChristopherIGomes]

RIP!!!

[@matthewaronoff7539]

rest in peace robin williams

[@davecampbellknowledgeleader]

thx Robin

[@trishacole3408]

We lost an awesome man but we still can hear him laugh!!!!

[@TheMonroemomma]

Would be nice to know the year this interview was recorded.

[@TL-cc8kc]

He was in 3 episodes of this show and all episodes were released in 2014. So it was pobably recorded the previous year or 2014, the year he died.

[@BillyBoy442]

Offstage and off camera, Robin was less frenetic- mellowed out but still entertaining.

[@TRIChuckles]

As a large fan. I miss him badly. His family must be Devastated

[@infinimetrical]

7:40 Awesome character! My name is Andrew. ;)

[@patguzman3132]

What a mind

[@lelandfranklin3487]

I really miss him...he said at the end that he "didn't know how to be funny anymore." Sadly, he didn't need to be...we would have loved him anyway.

[@Mark.G475]

I miss Robin Williams.

[@derekchin6403]

God, we miss him.

[@FirstLast-cd6vv]

When was this interview recorded?

[@johncronk3939]

Can you imagine what his IQ was? Off the charts

[@Ktjeeper79]

Does anyone know the dates of these pieces? They’re so interesting to watch but, especially with those who have passed, I’m curious how soon before we lost them they were made. Thank you!

[@paulzammataro7185]

👍🏻👏🏻

[@cosasdekhufu]

even in trasformes they did it witha message the robot thats there with the family

[@hadassah179]

what''s the difference between juliard and shakespearian training ?

[@kendramazzu2690]

Does anyone know what day this was filmed specifically cause he died more than two years ago

[@kenrowland7864]

Wouldn't it be great if he were Still With Us? 😅🤔

[@zovalentine7305]

In spirit he always will be ❣

[@dj2bklyn]

He never mentioned I cant do it until I need glasses

[@HenryCasillas]

☮️

[@nancyewald-vz6ld]

Why did this brilliant genius have to leave this world.he still had so much to give esp. to sad and often depressed people .was better and longer lasting than any psychiatric med. I'd trade places within in a heartbeat as he was a cure to a terrible disease...nancygwenewald

[@MRVISTA-wz7vj]

😮

[@totalyouttacontrol]

That was no nearly long enough. I think a hour would of been to short.

[@oneail89]

Anyone notice the random twitching of his shoulders ??.. Like Micheal J Fox does... So sad .. I miss you Robin 🥺

[@garybryson1900]

Funniest guy I've ever seen.

[@ovrezy]

He must’ve been horrified by Richard Pryors deterioration , I guess he didn’t want that for himself.

[@paulzammataro7185]

There's a thing called Google, you oughta try using it!

[@C.Fecteau-AU-MJ13]

I wonder when this was recorded. If he was already aware of his illness, he certainly hid the symptoms and mental strain well. RIP Sir, you were one of the greatest to ever do it. The performance on Who's Line Is It Anyway is one of my top ten TV moments.

[@lexkanyima2195]

2011

[@ronwade2206]

Sorry, Robyn is not a founder of television. We loved his work but it started in 1977, not 1947.

[@samlyons3552]

Robin said He got lucky with More & Mindy.......sure ; He would of made it in any performing environment !

[@fuqui035]

I saw him on a TV show I said to my wife this man has mental problems didn't take anything seriously always joking I told her that us not normal

[@evanescapades2513]

This man was also murdered... so sad ....

[@Topspin89]

No, he wasn't. He'd become very depressed in the last few months of his life and had already started saying goodbye to his close friends, like Billy Connolly and Billy Crystal. He lost the will to live after he felt himself deteriorating physically and mentally because of his neuro disease, and also he was devastated by the cancelation of "The Crazy Ones." And maybe there were also marital problems and all these things combined just pushed him over the edge. If there had been anything suspicious about the death, the investigators would have picked it up. He was found with a slit on one wrist and a bloody knife near his body. You don't think if his wife had tried murdering him that night that he would have made noise and someone would have heard?

[@evanescapades2513]

@@Topspin89 these days anybody mocking the elites, the democrats and speak truth, is a target for extinction. Please open ur mind to todays attack on freedom and its speech.

[@allend2749]

why all the filthy language in the united states?

[@jacklowe3429]

It's nothing new. It happened in the 1980s, where films that featured the f-bomb were reclassified with R ratings, instead of NC-17.

[@farrellmcnulty909]

Because it's fun.

[@Tessmage_Tessera]

Because there's no such thing as "filthy language."

[@lexkanyima2195]

​@@jacklowe3429 and have more freedom

[@coolbluesman]

Had Williams voted in an Afghan election recently :D

[@jeffvannda1250]

Pioneer,??? He was on an awful sitcom....he had nothing to do with being a pioneer of tv.. what a joky

[@kendallevans4079]

Unfortunately this man's sickness is on full display here.He just can't stop the "act"....

[@artgarfunkelart2094]

Superman and robbin

[@artgarfunkelart2094]

The greatest

[@jessenone3708]

didn't he commit suicide