Rodney Dangerfield RIP

I was genuinely bummed when I heard about this last night. RIP, Rodney. (Thank god he's been cloned!)

As an adult, Dangerfield made up with his father, but the part that really got me was his father's funeral. Dangerfield was the only person there and while his father was being lowered into the ground one of the workers asked for his autograph.

Same here!

Then one guy with an amazingly loud voice shouts out, "Hey Rodney, when does the show start?"

There was an awkward pause for about five seconds, and for a moment it seemed the heckler got the better of him. Then, with absolutely perfect timing he deadpans, "Why don't you just go fuck yourself?" It absolutely brought the house down.

he was killer

He took the name Rodney Dangerfield, a pseudonym which had been used by Ricky Nelson on the TV program The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet.

In 2004, Rodney's autobiography, It's Not Easy Bein' Me: A Lifetime of No Respect but Plenty of Sex and Drugs (ISBN 0066211077) was published. The book's original title was My Love Affair With Marijuana, a reference to the drug he smoked daily for sixty years.

In keeping with his "No Respect" persona, his headstone reads simply, "Rodney Dangerfield - There goes the neighborhood."

Same here!

Same here II. Did he die on a big news day or something?

# Caddyshack (1980)
# Easy Money (1983) (also writer)
# Back to School (1986) (also writer)

# Rover Dangerfield (1991) (voice) (also writer and producer)
# Ladybugs (1992)
# Meet Wally Sparks (1997) (also writer and producer)

What happened to Rodney between 1986 and 1991 that he fell off so hard. What was he up to?

""I say 'no' to drugs. Whenever someone asks me for some of my drugs
I say, 'no.'"
— Rodney Dangerfield

Was he in Vegas then? I think he had his own steady show for a while.

he was already 65 when he made Back To School, I would say he probably kicked back and enjoyed his money and fame but it seems like he did a lot of TV work and standup after that. I mean his schtick isn't necessarily well suited to movies and he kinda got lucky that he managed to make a couple good big ones.

What happened to Rodney between 1986 and 1991 that he fell off so hard. What was he up to?

injured himself doing the triple lindy iirc.

I saw Rodney in Bloomingdales about 20 years ago, in summer, in khaki shorts, carrying a window fan he'd just purchased (i presume for his comedy club, about 4 blocks away).

also his standup >>>>>>>>>>>>>> dumbass '80s movies

wally sparks does have the classic line, when the squirrel runs up his pants, "get your OWN nuts!!!!!"

he was in Vegas by the late 90s/had his own comedy club. he did a bunch of shitty direct-to-video movies towards the end too.

his standup stuff/TV appearances are amazing

easily my favorite standup ever, after Pryor

His HBO specials in the late 80s were more formative of my identity than pretty much anything save my parents.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DaxfWgn2KY

R.I. fuckin P. you two

Some great Rodney stories from way back when he was Jack Roy: http://classicshowbiz.blogspot.com/2012/09/an-interview-with-stanley-dean-part-one.html

"I have a guy who is a tremendous comedy talent. I think your office would do well to come and see him. I would like to arrange a meeting for you to meet him." He said, "Okay. How about two o'clock on Wednesday?" "Fine." That's what we did. I went there with Rodney and I said, "When we walk into the office - I want you to walk over to him, shake his hand and say, 'Pleasure to meet you,' and walk to the back of the office. I'll sit with him at his desk. Say hello and nothing else. Nothing else." Because this guy, Jack Roy, could destroy himself in a hurry.

You know? So, that's what happened. Nat Kalcheim said to me, "Where can we see him work?" I said, "A place in the Village." I was gonna get him a place where everybody used to work - Dick Cavett, Woody Allen, Joan Rivers - so I took him down there. It was run by a woman. A little club that seated twenty-five people at the most. I walked in there with Rodney. I said, "Sit down." I went up to her and I said, "You see that guy sitting over there? He is a very - funny - comedian. Would you let him do a few minutes? If you see him work you'll want him for a few weeks."

She said, "Stanley. He does not look like a comedian." I said, "You can't go by his looks! Take my word for it. You won't be sorry." "Okay. Five minutes. That's all." I went over to him. "Here's what you're going to do. You're gonna go up. Do five minutes. And get the hell off. That is all. Okay? That's it." He does... and they went nuts. When you saw him in this tiny little room - he looked like a giant. If you're a good performer in a small area - it's always better than a vast area. You have a better connection - you with them and they with you. It's always better. She loved him. She said to me, "I want him here for a couple weeks. I only pay forty dollars."

He said, "Don't worry, I'll drink it." He went to work there and the room suited him to a tee. He was an animal. To see him up close - it had a great effect and the jokes were sensational. Next week on a Wednesday I brought people from the Morris office down. Nat Kalcheim and six guys came down. They watched him and they turned to me and said, "He is very funny... but what do we do with him?" I said, "What do you mean what to do with him!? Take him to Ed Sullivan and have him perform during the Sunday run-through!"

When you did the Sullivan show they had a run-through on Sunday afternoon that started around ten in the morning. When I first did it I said, "Jesus, how many people are going to be on this show?" But as it turned out, what they would do is... they have half a dozen performers that were already booked [for the live show at night], but they also had several performers that were not booked. They would do the show in the afternoon so they could have a look at them. So I said, "If you put him on Sullivan - if he's a big hit in the afternoon... no one is taking any chances.

If he isn't a hit, he doesn't do the show. But if he is a hit... I tell you... he will be, I can sense it, I can see it, I can feel it. He is going to be a successful comedian and there is no telling to what extent. His material... without question... he is one of the top ten comedians I have ever heard. Material, jokes, delivery, freshness." As far as the person goes... well, there wasn't much to talk about. But as a performer! You could sense it.

Those promo shots!

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Uv_XTbtvrzA/UDxUTm_XHJI/AAAAAAAAMuI/pb3LSkInf9I/s400/Picture+55.png

http://www.e-profession.com/images/rodney_dangerfield_lose.jpg

^^^underrated

More great reading about the old days : http://blog.wfmu.org/freeform/2011/10/the-schleppers.html

^^^awes piece thx for the link!

The Simpsons episode with Rodney is so great. I remember the writers remarking on how hard it was to write those one-liners.

Nesteroff's own blog and long pieces for WFMU are utterly U&K. Maron's WTF with him is worth seeing out.

Would pay money to see well-done Jack Roy/Rodney biopic

Rodney/Roy pops up in Albert Goldman's Lenny Bruce biography a few times

Listening to No Respect (1980) right now.

"I only get girls cause of who I am...a rapist!"

Full set from Westbury Music Fair, N.Y. 1983

oooh!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FPv2toi5og

Just bought a used vinyl copy of No Respect. Had no idea it came out on Casablanca!

An oral history of "Back to School". Includes this amazing tidbit (so to speak):

Basil: Rodney came to a showcase at the Comedy Store I was on along with Louie Anderson, Bob Saget, Yakov Smirnoff and others. He liked my act and casted me in his first HBO special, the 9th Annual Young Comedians Special in 1984. We first met in the Green Room at Dangerfield’s, Rodney’s comedy club in New York City. His testicles were hanging out of his robe. Anyone who spent any private time with Rodney saw them. He was only comfortable in a bathrobe, but he never tied it shut all the way and never wore underwear. So the boys kinda hung out to catch some air. They were exceptionally low-hanging, like a grandfather clock.

hall of tmi

a grandfather's cock

Joan keeps a bottle of Rodney’s sweat in her refrigerator

Maybe it's ball sweat.

I suspect a lot of younger ppl fail to investigate his stand up, thinking he's just the "no respect guy". Their loss

We all remember him for his rapping.

Did y'all know about Where's Rodney, the failed NBC pilot where Rodney advises a 14-year-old, Play It Again, Sam-style, on his growing pains?

I vaguely remember seeing it at the time. The TV at my house was almost always tuned to NBC back then, and at the time the network was found of burning off unsold pilots they had access to as filler programming.

Rabin not kidding about how terrible it is (there’s a link to it on Daily Motion in the article) but a few things amused me: the WTFness of the scene with the banana, how much the main actor resembles a pipsqueak version of Bill Maher, and the surrealism of the premise—which, yes, I know is ripped off from Woody Allen, but the idea of Rodney actually being pulled, forcibly (by what? magic?), out of his real life to just appear and help this kid out treats it far more like something that is *actually happening* rather than Woody being visited by Bogie’s ghost in what we can easily read as a fantasy of the Woody character.

His Centennial was two days ago

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W6QzY6KbCUQ

Attempted a rewatch of Easy Money the other day, but didn't get very far. Just a junky, lazy, and all around cynical piece of work. Mean, too: big shock that P.J. O'Rourke was one of four (!) credited writers. Say what you will about Back to School and, hell, Ladybugs--at least they obviously conceived and executed as proper star vehicles. Easy Money looks like no one involved gave a shit.