Buck Henry

That Was the Week That Was

Get Smart

The Graduate

Catch-22

Candy

Heaven Can Wait

Quark

Saturday Night Live

Taking Off

Gloria

The Man Who Fell to Earth

Short Cuts

To Die For

30 Rock, The Daily Show

Vice: You were acting in theater and on early television when you were a teenager. Was there a lot of crossover between the two at the time?

Buck Henry:

What sorts of roles did you get?

GE Theater

Studio One

I assume this was all drama?

Before you began working for Steve Allen in 1961, were you writing for theater?

The Philco Television Playhouse, Studio One, GE Theater, Playhouse 90

Do you keep them?

Well, no worries about the video. That was the era that they wiped almost everything once it was broadcast.

That Was the Week That Was

Pieces that you were in?

That Was the Week That Was was a groundbreaking show.

Sometimes I confuse the American version with the British one of the same name.

What do you mean?

Was Tom Lehrer part of TW3?

Tell me about the Premise, the New York improv group you were in around that time. It was geographically unusual, as most improv was coming out of Chicago and the Midwest then.

I know Flicker and Elaine May came up with the original rules for improv. Did that make the Premise like Second City?

He hit the blackout switch.

It seems like by the early 60s a lot of the interesting comedians and the improv people were getting into writing for television.

TW3

TW3

Darden ended up in movies and TV with some frequency. Del Close, I can’t remember ever seeing him in anything offstage.

so

My Mother the Car

Get Smart

I lived in Chicago when Del Close was still teaching, and the stories you’d hear…

Broadcast pranksterism started showing up around then. You played an elaborate hoax for years, where you went on talk shows as G. Clifford Prout, president of the Society for Indecency to Naked Animals, an organization that raised money to clothe animals. What sort of subversion did that create?

The Today Show

You started writing for and appearing on Steve Allen’s show in 1961. When I was a kid, he was the first TV personality that made me realize you could be both really smart and really funny.

Steve Allen

Allen

legendary

Was Steve Allen the first time you wrote for TV?

I imagine that was also true with Saturday Night Live.

Saturday Night Live

Regarding politics in the larger sense, it seems like comedy people of that time had a better grasp than almost anyone.

As a response?

It’s interesting that you ended up on The Garry Moore Show after that, writing funny but very safe material for the likes of Durward Kirby and Carol Burnett.

What did you do there?

Let’s get back to the new vibe in comedy we were talking about a minute ago.

The Tonight Show

I’ve always figured the triumvirate that molded American 60s comedy was the intellectual Nichols and May improv crowd, the rantings of Lenny Bruce, and then Harvey Kurtzman and Mad. The new Jewish funny. But you’re saying it’s these guys in the network writing rooms.

SNL

SNL

Let’s talk about The Graduate. There’s this persistent rumor that Calder Willingham, who supposedly wrote the screenplay with you, in fact…

End as a Man

The Graduate

The Graduate

You were both nominated for Best Screenplay. What would have happened if you’d won?

Yeah, his credit is still on the DVD cover.

It would have been strange if you’d both won the Oscar.

Around the time of The Graduate you and Mel Brooks conceived and wrote the original Get Smart. Did you ever get any reaction from the CIA?

You did another oddball TV comedy around that time, Captain Nice.

Captain Nice

It was pretty trippy.

Mr. Terrific

I don’t recall that one.

Dropping the political content into these shows, was that for your own amusement?

Get Smart

You got your chance to be political with the Catch-22 screenplay. Did you know Joseph Heller, by the way?

There’s got to be a lot of pressure adapting a beloved book.

The Day of the Dolphin

The Day of the Dolphin

The Owl and the Pussycat

Did he?

It’s still amazing.

You think so?

How so?

The Graduate and Catch-22 are excellent examples of your ability to write to a character’s voice.

Furioso

Furioso

Writing for the voice.

You know, I’m not going to ask you about Heaven Can Wait. I’d rather spend that time talking about a great, obscure TV show you wrote around then called Quark. For the readers, it was a kind of spoof of Star Trek. But it was so much weirder than that.

Really? I always thought that Richard Benjamin sounded exactly like you speaking.

Catch-22

Quark

Heaven Can Wait

Dark Star.

Dark Star

Quark

Star Trek

Dark Star was John Carpenter’s first film. It’s great. As someone who never cottoned to Star Trek, I got a huge kick out of Quark. They nailed it.

Star Trek

I’ve always been interested in your relationship with Terry Southern. How did you end up writing the screenplay for Candy, instead of Southern, who wrote the book?

The Graduate

Candy

laughs

Yeah, it was a wildly international cast. Elsa Martinelli, Charles Aznavour, Sugar Ray Robinson, Anita Pallenberg, Walter Matthau, Ringo.

I’d like to hear your thoughts, briefly, on three other films that you either wrote or starred in. First: Taking Off.

Taking Off

laughs

What’s Up, Doc?

What’s Up, Doc?

I think it’s one of the funniest movies ever made, and I’m not exactly a Streisand fan.

The Man Who Fell to Earth.

I like your character. Aggressive in a strange way.

How was Bowie to work with?

So, how did you become associated with Saturday Night Live?

The Graduate

Time

You always looked like you were having a blast.

Sight reading. You mean from cards.

Until recently you held the record for most times hosting SNL. Some people thought that you were actually a cast member.

I recently watched the infamous 1977 Mardi Gras show that you hosted, the only live remote they ever attempted.

Are you interested enough in the new version to host?

That Was the Week That Was

Someone might start a Facebook campaign for you.

Are you a fan of new American film comedy, like Judd Apatow’s movies?

Anything behind it?

Have you seen anything lately that made you happy?

The Winter’s Tale