George Miller Collection on Letterman, Part 4 of 6: 1987-1989

Dave and George hit their stride.
1987:
30. February 10, 1987. Stand-up and chat. George's Top Eight entries to the Gimmicks contest.
31. April 7, 1987. Stand-up and chat.
32. June 10, 1987. The Disgusted Comedian gimmick.
33. August 18, 1987. Stand-up and chat. You'll hear Dave laugh after George's first joke.
34. October 6, 1987. Stand-up and chat. The Religious Comic gimmick.
1988:
35. August 9, 1988. In the News Comic and the Bothered Comic gimmick.
36. October 20, 1988. In the News Comic gimmick.
1989:
37. January 3, 1989. Stand-up and chat. The Questioning Comic gimmick.
38. April 6, 1989. The Impressionist Comic gimmick and the Intelligence-Insulted Comic gimmick.
39. June 28, 1989. The Ticked-Off Comic gimmick.
40. October 11, 1989. The Television Comedian gimmick.

[@jamesbusch948]

Find myself watching these old Letterman clips more and more sitting up in bed like now or having them play while I fold clothes, dishes etc...George Miller was such a class act and a pleasure to watch and listen to. Love these clips! Theyre way better than having the TV on! Much love for them 👍👍

[@redshiftexperiment]

George Miller was one of the best ever! I keep coming back to watch these over and over!

[@mactheknife7049]

George and Jeff Altman were two guys who invariably got on "Late Night" and "Late Show" primarily because Dave liked them. Both would from time to time go on the show and absolutely bomb to a point where the only person you heard laughing was Dave. But that... was the only laughter that mattered.

[@bulafritz]

You could hear crickets on that deuce in the hole joke

[@sugarjoe50]

Mac you're correct, this guy wasn't funny. Fortunately for him he was Letterman's buddy.

[@Imnotyourmamaluke]

@@mactheknife7049 What is doing panel?

[@moniemaker27]

Ima Goyl being interviewed by the host- basically having an entertainment-focused conversation

[@redshiftexperiment]

@@sugarjoe50 I think he is priceless. Hilarious in fact.

[@GolfAfter50]

The waiter joke right off the top!! lol

[@thegrimyeaper]

Finally in part 4 he gets the audience on his side.

[@curbozerboomer1773]

I cannot help but compare George to Hennie Youngman...very old school, rapid-fire jokes, peppered with in-between the jokes banter. Both men were excellent with their spontaneity...if one joke bombed, they moved on so quickly! George was not really appreciated for his very perceptive skewering of our goofy society! We lost him, and Norm MacDonald to that horribly leukemia!..Medical science can prolong the life of vicrims of this disease, but it is a terminal condition...Oh well, I guess George would say that Life itself is a terminal condition! I miss this guy; he is another underrated near-genius from Seattle!

[@CircuitRider]

I’ve been watching all these George Miller appearances out of order, but these late 80s and early 90s ones are the best so far. Thanks a million Don for preserving this history. Hilarious stuff, I’m glad Norm and Dave both were vocal about how great George was, it’s what made me check out these videos.

[@mattkilleen7174]

The two jokes I remember George telling were: when he got high and introduced Seals and Crofts as Arts and Crafts (he told this a 1,000 times on talks shows, but I haven't gotten to it on here yet), and a "Hands Across America" joke where he says there's one guy in the middle of the Grand Canyon saying "This sucks!".

[@jk3521]

Dave loved this guy!

[@j.c.b6473]

Sleepwalk! Paul is a genius.

[@miguelbatista9493]

What a great show this was

[@thegrimyeaper]

1:31:10 I love how Dave rewrites and improves on the spot for him.

[@ThymeKeeper]

Dude likes to go back to the well. One show from 1987 was all jokes he had done before.

[@steveconn]

Ha ha, like me with women. We're so pathetic.

[@curbozerboomer1773]

This is what I liked about George!..He knew he would never be a super-rich, successful comedian...but he just adopted that "I don't give a crap" attitude, and it seemed very genuine, like the essence of his true personality. His "Whatever" attitude was likely a deeply-rooted mechanism for dealing with the built-in rejection he knew he would encounter, due to the nature of his humor. I miss this guy!..He, and MacDonald were my favorites, and I think it is because they shared similar attitudes!

[@moclips1]

Thanks so much! (part 4)

[@charleswinokoor6023]

It’s good to know I wasn’t the only one getting Della Reese confused with Oprah Winfrey. And can anyone explain how “Sleep Walk” became his intro musical theme on the show?

[@dongiller]

Explanation, such as it is, is in the Part 2 description.

[@leonardstilwell1894]

It's the all new ... Late Night '87

[@drrobert8678]

Searching for a gimmick. It's pretty well let on in the 1989 shows that he already had one. The bad joke comedian. By now it's pretty obvious. And quite daring. What continued to make it work were those 20% or so of jokes that were truly laugh out loud funny and would make you root for him. His stand ups were always good but that was obvious from the first couple of Carson routines. It was the risk of making this work successfully that probably inspired the likes of Norm MacDonald. A shaky concept in the early 80s that became much more polished, for lack of a better word, by this point.

[@ThymeKeeper]

Finally! The "Gertrude" joke lol

[@tomaswolf4777]

Timestamp?

[@philhunter9134]

Truly astonishing...on some level.

[@rockbottomrhythm_blues]

Vidal "the Truth" Sassoon

[@erichaynes7502]

I"m a night owl and tonight I was up very late stringing my tennis racket and played this in the background. I think part of George Miller's charm was he was such an easy listen and when he really hit home on an observation the crowd/all of us cheered in appreciation.

[@kevinrhea7332]

I get why Norm Macdonald likes this guy, I would love to see George Miller roasting somebody

[@williammarquino8894]

Finally! In 1987 I saw George standing in the airport in Vegas a couple of days after a Letterman appearance and I said to him, "I'm working my way back to you, Fred" (because the joke was so incredibly stupid it was funny; 31:30). He just looked at me as if I had grown another head. But he did seem to appreciate the fact that someone had recognized him.

[@MonitorSmith]

The guy tanks so hard.

[@nowaskmehow]

Joe Biden joke at 34:30.

[@justinroark88]

34:30 A Joe Biden joke

[@spartanx5806]

george miller one of the greatest hard working comedians ever......

[@ziggystardust911]

..from 5:58 - 6:04, George has an expression on his face, ("..is that applause and laughter actually for ME..??!") ..he even 'glances back', to double-check..!!! 🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣

[@pillettadoinswartsh4974]

0:58 - That's a COSBY sweater. A C-O-S-B-Y SWEA-TUH

[@oppothumbs1]

George Miller was a delight and treasure (Jeff Altman was just an interesting guy you could meet on a bus)

[@j.c.b6473]

Why can't we have both?

[@nowaskmehow]

That gas joke was well over the line...

[@rafaelfernandeslopesdeoliv1700]

Mac The Knife raises an interesting point, is a Jeff Altman collection coming anytime in the near future, Don?

[@dongiller]

Wrong time to ask.

[@Page-Hendryx]

I didn't get the Sean Penn joke (AIDS in prison). Can someone explain that one to me?

[@TheLegitPanda]

The "Eat Me Date" reference can be found in "Supermarket Finds on Letterman, June 28, 1989" on the KZbins.

[@dongiller]

Right here - kzbin.info/www/bejne/pGSne4SAqNiWgdU

[@miked4377]

i love george miller....r.i.p...

[@redshiftexperiment]

1:10:24 could anyone fill me in on what Dave was bothered by? It was something about tires, and Paul was apologizing?? JANUARY 3RD 1989 was the date of the show.

[@dongiller]

Dave was pissed at the Goodyear Blimp people for turning down the show’s request to use it for its upcoming 7th anniversary special.

[@redshiftexperiment]

@@dongillerOK makes sense... I was just intrigued because he seemed to be upset with Paul or something and I could hear what sounded like a member of the band swear.. then it sounded like Paul/someone said "give me a break man" .. but I suppose that could just be a response to George Miller teasing him for not paying attention. Anyway obviously I have too much time on my hands.. lol 👍👍

[@dongiller]

@@redshiftexperiment You’re saying you have too much time on your hands to the wrong person. :)

[@redshiftexperiment]

Found it.. Lol.. Thanks .. probably just Paul trying to calm him down .. kzbin.info/www/bejne/bqe8f3hpmb2ijLs

[@brewer921]

The Oct. 20, 1988 appearance is here twice?

[@dongiller]

Oops. Sloppy editing. I wanted to use two sources but forgot to get rid of the second, Sorry!

[@downside1237]

Dave was this guy's lifeline. Really nice guy, but it's like he's trying too hard. He was funny here and there but for the most part not really.

[@downside1237]

@@asiawalkerextra He's just not my cup of tea, I find norm mcdonald funny So when he talked about him I looked him up. Another time, another place.. Some people find some things funny. Others are easily amused by anything but I wouldn't be at dick about it. I've seen most of what he's done. Some of it was funny to me, most of it wasn't. And it's kind of sad that you can't sleep at night because someone disagreed with you , you sound like a liberal

[@downside1237]

@@asiawalkerextra touche