Peter Cook On His Clash With Zsa Zsa Gabor | The Dick Cavett Show
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- Опубліковано 11 лют 2025
- Peter Cook and Dudley Moore ad-lib a sketch before Peter describes the time he fell out with Zsa Zsa Gabor.
Date aired - 10/4/73 - Peter Cook, Dudley Moore & Kirk Douglas
#PeterCook #DudleyMoore #KirkDouglas #DickCavett
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Dick Cavett has been nominated for eleven Emmy awards (the most recent in 2012 for the HBO special, Mel Brooks and Dick Cavett Together Again), and won three. Spanning five decades, Dick Cavett’s television career has defined excellence in the interview format. He started at ABC in 1968, and also enjoyed success on PBS, USA, and CNBC.
His most recent television successes were the September 2014 PBS special, Dick Cavett’s Watergate, followed April 2015 by Dick Cavett’s Vietnam. He has appeared in movies, tv specials, tv commercials, and several Broadway plays. He starred in an off-Broadway production ofHellman v. McCarthy in 2014 and reprised the role at Theatre 40 in LA February 2015.
Cavett has published four books beginning with Cavett (1974) and Eye on Cavett (1983), co-authored with Christopher Porterfield. His two recent books -- Talk Show: Confrontations, Pointed Commentary, and Off-Screen Secrets (2010) and Brief Encounters: Conversations, Magic moments, and Assorted Hijinks(October 2014) are both collections of his online opinion column, written for The New York Times since 2007. Additionally, he has written for The New Yorker, TV Guide, Vanity Fair, and elsewhere.
#thedickcavettshow
This is fabulous interviewing and hosting,no rude interuptions, fabulous
"For personal reasons"...that's possibly one of the best delivery of a line I've seen for a long time!
Insane how they improvised such a funny skit so easily
Good to see these two young and well. I miss them both
I've seen clips of Dick Cavett's shows and he seems a great host, giving his guests time and space but stepping in where necessary. The Pete and Dud improv was amazing
What an amazing few minutes. Actual real, sincere, talented, unrehearsed and unvarnished human interaction on a live talk show. Incredible and wonderful to watch.
No swearing or profanities at all. Comedy of the highest class. Unlike Eddie Murphy and his F bombs.
@@NJTDover don’t look up Derek and Clive…
Oh thank you! So damn true.
"Drove off in a chauffer driven huff" brilliant!
wonder what model huff it was,
Indirectly quoting Groucho. "You can leave in a taxi or you can leave in a huff."
?
@cedricliggins7528 you dont know what a Huff means??? It means cranky 😠
‘He committed suicide.....apparently for personal reasons.’
What a gem of a line!
It was very funny indeed but he got the age wrong by a very wide margin.
@@bodsnvimto yes I noticed that, and wondered if he intended it to have a meaning other. Coincidentally, Cook's great grandfather also "suicided" around the age he gave Freud.
This was made before I was born and discovering these shows for the first time really brings home how much television sucks these days.
Chat shows these days have no class. A guy on a base plays a note whenever there's a wisecrack, as if the audience wouldn't know it. Stupid little desks with the "personality" lower than the interviewer, nonsense 30 second sound bites followed by adverts. You're right, compared to this they're all terrible.
I know. I’m young and it’s something about old Hollywood that fascinates me
American TV always sucked! Seriously,, Petticoat Junction was about what we had when this was broadcast in the States. So, when you’d like to go back in time, remember to land in Britain, not Hollywood!!!
@@carolkotcheck6065 I've been watching Petticoat Junction on UA-cam actually. I must say I've been thoroughly enjoying it.
@@carolkotcheck6065 I don't agree - both had some great shows.
Get a copy of Peter Cook’s biography ‘I was an only twin” - it’s great!
read it proper genius...complicated and difficult man tho
Fantastic book, I soiled my undergarments on several occasions whilst reading ..
Zsa Zsa Gabor was the best housekeeper in Hollywood - every time she got divorced she kept the house!
she also never gave people free publicity..smart lady she dropped his name out of it
😅😂🤣😂😅
😅😅😅😅🤣🤣🤣 I've never heard that before!!! LOL! Do you remember when she slapped that policeman across the face??? OMG 😲!!!
Bob Hope line isn't it?
My word thats original
Another great Dick Cavett clip. Kirk is always impressive. The improvised sketch which Pete and Dud did would now take a team of writers 6 weeks to write. In that sense we are watching a bit of magic here.
It wasn't improvised, still great though.
@@alm4655 its basically mrs woolleys curse innit?
@@alm4655 it was an improvisation around the Pete & Dud sketch “Dud Dreams “ .
@Mj Steel To his dying day, Kirk Douglas remained a class act...which is more than I can say for 99% of his peers in Hollywood.
@@shirleypena4133 - 99% of his peers? That seems a little extreme. There were a lot of incredibly talented actors that were also decent people in Hollywood's 'golden age.' Paul Newman, Burt Lancaster, Sophie Loren, Jimmy Stewart Henry Fonda and many others.
" Have you had a dream recently? " And away they go! Now, THAT"S improvisation! Thank goodness they both left a bit of their comic talents on film and TV for us to appreciate.
It was loosely based around the Pete & Dud sketch “ Dud dreams “ obviously Dick hasn’t heard it.
@@thekitowl Yep, 3 years prior to this date
@@thekitowl Thank goodness. I didn't think it was humanly possible to improvise at this standard. They certainly made it look like they were improvising.
@@chriswatson7965 as the sketches were improvised into a tape recorder in the first place, probably not hard for them expand on the initial idea.
there would be a lot more if the BBC hadn't been such short-sighted pence-pinching MOrons.
"she drove off in a chaffeur-driven huff"
“Biggest non event of the 20th century” brilliant!
Cavett makes the gaffe of saying Dud'n'Pete, which Peter pointedly corrects to Pete'n'Dud (as all Brits always call them) in the first few seconds of this show - then he continues to say Dud'n'Pete several times thereafter. Kudos to Peter for biting his lip and not correcting him again and again - which he deserved. Or shall we say Hardy & Laurel from now on if we like...?
PS: Pete'n'Dud's ad libbed sketch after that is nothing short of genius!!!
There's a sketch they did about Religion, the first time I heard it I nearly choked. Peter says that he wrote to the Head of the Church of England, "You know, straight to the point, Dear C*nts in charge of Religion"
It’s from Derek and Clive Ad Nauseum and you’re so right , it’s so funny. They were just two funny guys bouncing off each other. Very talented and greatly missed.
good to see that Kirk Douglas is enjoying it
one of the great comedy duos ever, and what a treat watching them improv a routine on live t.v. not being put off but just going with it, peter turning to dudley with a premise, dudley spinning the yearn and pete turning it into the gem it became, and then to have a seasoned actor like kirk douglas think it had been staged. what a compliment that was.
Discovering British comedy was something of a revelation. Growing up in the 70's it was a wasteland of sitcoms and variety shows. When the PBS station out of New York started airing Monty Python, Fawlty Towers, Butterflies, and other shows they were vastly better than what was available in America. It was dry, witty, silly, but also very smart. I remember seeing the British version of Three's Company called Man About the House and enjoying it much better. Pete and Dudley are hysterical. I believe that I first saw their version of Hounds of the Baskerville, but it was when I got to see Bedazzled that I became a fan.
to be fair The Office by the Brits is way different, and....I like it
I've always loved these gentlemen....happy I found this
I remember listening to Peter Cooke when he used to phone the Clive Bull show on LBC radio in London and pretend to be a Norwegian fisherman called Sven from Swiss Cottage. Clive Bull always knew who it really was but never said, thus letting Peter Cooke do his funny ad libs and tricking some of the audience into believing he was just a crank caller. The recordings from 1988-1992 are worth looking up and listening to.
Absolutely brilliant. How lovely to see Kirk appreciating their wonderful humour.
Peter and Dudley genuinely seem to delight in each other's humor here and it fills me with awe and wonder and joy and all the good feelings. Shame the title of the video is about Zsa Zsa and not that amazing bit of comic genius
The way these two feed humour to each other, is a brilliant & hilarious gift🤣
Such a shame Peter died in 1995 and Dudley had to die in 2002 from that horrible condition. Legends!
Thank you to Paul for sharing this 👍
nice to see Peter standing up to animal abuse
When i was a lad , Pete and Dud were the first people that really caught my fascination. I was too young to get the implications for years ; but grew up and matured with a similarly bored idea of convention. I owe much of the way I see the world to those two nutcases. To this day , I only have to see a photo of either ; and I instantly smile , because of the outrage they caused , and the fact they relentlessly kept it up for decades. Anyone reading this who ,-is prob under 40-, and not seen them at their worst best ; type : "Derick and Clive ~ You C*nt" ' into any decent search engine. Remember what year it was. I could ruin my Grandmother's day by simply reminding her they existed back in the 70's.
P.S. Thanks a million for putting this up*
I used to listen to Derek and Clive when I was a young teenage school kid, my brother got me into them. Pure hilarious unadulterated puerile filth. Im now near 60 and they still make me laugh.
ZZ Gabor was the cause of the phrase:
"Famous for being famous."
Very true. The Gabor sisters Perhaps one of our first "reality" stars. Kardashian's Hilton's Etc
Thank goodness that kind of thing doesn't happen today.
...Note. : the Gabor sisters were Jewish , as was Freud
so some hidden stuff here.
@@michaelcelani8325 "so some hidden stuff here": So, tell us what "hidden stuff" explicitly you think is there.
Peter and Dudley were such class. I love them both, madly.
She went off in a chauffeur-driven huff. Haha. I don't think Pete even realised what a great line that was!
Wonderful motor, the 12 cylinder huff. Lovely lines and such a smooth ride.
Love Pete and dud..kirk Douglas..what a gent..RIP all
Douglas made a fool of himself.
That was very nice of Kirk Douglas to stand up for his friends and in an educated and empathetic way. Those were the days!
Utter bullshit. He should have sat there and kept quiet. There was no need for his comments.
Unique talents that had brilliant minds, we are lucky they met and gave us so much fun
Kirk was gallant. Pete was honest. Two great characters. Dudley was self conscious but equally talented. Dick was a great host. Very enjoyable.
spot on. very well articulated David
And you are quite correct on all counts.....
Dudley looks really nervous.
Yes well done David, you were great.
dad?
Absolutely brilliant!
skip to 9:30 for the Zsa Zsa Gabor story
Don't skip anything!
Thank you!
So glad to hear Peter Cook's ZsaZsa story....I worked for her shortly and she was a horror
Good on him for the honesty. A rare commodity in fame world
ZsaZsa was a precursor to "reality" stardom: a one-note character famous for being famous. I find Paris Hilton and Kim Kardashian insufferable in the same way. It has nothing to do with who they really are, just the air of hyper-privileged superficiality they present to the public.
Good people don't lie to put others down, so I believe you not Kirk
Absolutely 👍
But if only you'd gotten to know her, you'd realise what a wonderful person she was. Apparently.
Eva wrote a book early in her career (ORCHIDS and SALAMI) did stage work, had a TV show before G.A. and was the first Gabor to be in films in 1941. She was the prettiest and nicest of the sisters in my opinion.
Watch Bedazzled, if you’re new to these two!
And disregard the 2000 version, starring Elizabeth Hurley
@@xemnas9098 absolutely!
JULIE ANDREWS!!!
The 'dream' sketch they improvise is in their album. Word for word. So it was either rehearsed (in which case they and Dick blatantly lied), or it was so brilliantly improvised that they just used it from then on. It doesn't matter though - its a great sketch and they were geniuses. :)
My guess would be that they finally had something on tape they could go back to.
Either way, they wrote it. Total genius
Used the Dick Cavett tapes.
considdering Moore cracks Peter up like that im guessing that this is the start of what becomes Dreams. Because Pete never broke up like that in anything ive ever seen.
Pete and Dud at their finest in impro! I really miss the Cavett show...used to watch it religiously when in my 20s...There is nothing like it in quality these days!
they did impro and they could also make it up on the spot
What everyone forgets now, is that The Gabor sisters were trained as high class courtesans - by their Mother. That is what they were originally famous for.
There is nothing "high class" about "courtesans".
They sound like the original kardashians.
Their mother was a piece of work, and the daughters were her fines achievement.
@@mirror1675
There's less risk the "high class courtesans" will give you VD.
@@shelbynamels973 Eva was most definitely her finest achievement; she at least had expert comic timing.
I remember a cringe-worthy appearance by Zsa Zsa Gabor on a chat show on British TV in the 1980s. I think the host was Russell Harty. Also on the show was a woman who had suffered from obsessive compulsive disorder. I think she may have written a book about her struggle to overcome her excessive cleaning. Zsa Zsa turned to her and said "But, dahling, how wonderful to have your house so clean." And she went on in similar vein, belittling this poor woman, and you could sense the audience hating her for it.
lol@ "Well, we have a surprise for you Peter." Brought the house down!
Fabulous!
Loved these two .
The Gabor sisters were the prototypes for the Kardashians.
Pat McBride: Brilliant observation! Beautiful the Gabor sisters were. As are the Kardashians. Unfortunately, they’re not too much in the way of cerebral excitement. NABS! Not a brain surgeon!
Or Paris Hilton. Famous for being famous. 'Leaked' sex vids.
@@AZOffRoadster Paris Hilton's great grandpa Conrad was married to Zsa Zsa.
Eva Gabor did Green Acres so she actually worked,and had a company , wigs I believe,but her sister famous for being famous and lots of husbands
@@lorraineforte9175 Conrad Hilton for one founder of the Hilton hotels it was short-lived she ran through quite a bit of his money. And he didn’t like that of course. I’m related to the Hiltons sorry to say Paris too
These people were comic geniuses - there are no other people who could do this.
Robin Williams could do both characters at the same time and be twice as funny.
@@antennawilde No, he couldn't be twice as funny
Robin Williams was a genius though in his own right
@@antennawilde Not a chance, I liked R W a lot, he was great with different voices and extending out humour to an exaggerated effect but would not have the intellect to arrive at the variety of humour PC could come up with. They both played to their own strengths.
James Corden?
@@bigtwit799 Not in the same league.
Masters of improvisation.
Awesome. Legends.
And Eva was lovely, but Zsa Zsa was arrogance personified. Remember when a cop tried to book her in LA ? She was driving an unregistered Rolls Royce without a valid driver's license and with an open container of alcohol. She said she was in a hurry and drove off. He chased and caught her and she slapped him when he tried to get her out of the car. She ended up on her ass on the sidewalk in cuffs. The courtroom was a circus too - can't remember the details, but she remained defiant and aloof. I think she was eventually threatened with jail or a contempt charge or something ?
Clive interviewed her on his show and got her to describe her daily beauty regimen....massage body scrub bath in milk etc. He let her go on and on and asked her "How did you do all that in prison???" Legend!!
Aw, Peter was concerned for the dog more than its owner, that's very sweet. "Biggest non-event of the 20th century" is an amazing way to describe a talentless celebrity. She made it worse by not laughing it off and acting offended.
Stupid. She is a very talented actress and performer, which he would have known if he'd seen her work. And so is her sister Eva, who is perhaps the better actress of the two. He displayed sheer ignorance and intolerance.
@@nonenoneonenonenone Interesting how you chose to reply to my comment, i.e to me, rather than making your own separately for this video. Is there some deeper meaning to that, or was this simply the first comment you saw that you didn't agree with?
@none Nonsense. Zsa Zsa’s acting performances (movie wise, at least) did not showcase talent. She was famous for being famous. I don’t say that as an insult, she was clearly very intelligent and knew how to use illusion and media better than anyone. That was her talent though and she clearly knew that too. To pretend otherwise is stupid.
Eva was the talented and nice one, we all loved her in Green Acres. Zsa Zsa was more like a Kardashian, all fluff.
@@dosmundos3830her name was Zsa Zsa for Pete’s sake lol
One time Zsa Zsa was on the tonight show. She came out right after Professor Irwin Cory appeared and was quasi-bragging about her jewelry. Irwin Cory pipes in: “she got them on the layaway method.” They immediately cut for a break and when they returned Cory was sitting at the very end of the dais.
Peter was gifted but his public school education was a great asset too. wish we had better schools here in the states
Wish we had better schools here in the UK
This was Tremendeous!
This is good
I have no idea what the Gabors actually accomplished in or contributed to show business beyond embodying parasitical narcissism.
Eva in Green Acres is all I can remember. The family is a punchline.
🤪just like kardashians
Oh well, haven't you heard? Their greatest achievement was affecting Kirk Douglas' admiration and "off-stage" defence.
Eva in 'Green Acres' was actually pretty good.
Wonderful.
Brilliant
Love this so much. ❤️❤️❤️
That improvisation is....................well, there just are no words for it, really.
Basically, ''Derek & Clive'' were fucking GENIUSES!!!
You calling me a c***?
You c****.
I enjoy the entire adlib rather more than the little part about Zsa Zsa. Fantastic stuff. The title got the click tho :-)
My best friend from years ago was the manager of El Morocco in NY and he said the woman who came there with the most class was Grace Kelly, and the woman with the least....you guessed it Zsa Zsa. He used a very demeaning word for Zsa Zsa/
Really awesome from Pete and Dud
Although this looks like it is utterly ad libbed, and to an extent, some of it is, it is actually a sketch they both did many years before as I have it on cassette, called, 'Dud Dreams' and is pretty much the same thing. But its a rare and obscure sketch, so its nice to hear it again here.
This is comedy gold!
I loved watching the DI K CAVETT SHOW. THOSE TWO ENGLISH BLOKES WERE REALLY FUNNY......
It was a shame the world lost DUDLEY MOORE at such a young age. R.I.P MR Moore
Peter too!
1:46 Have you had a dream recently? The full Color HD version would be scrubbed lol
Genius! Give them an idea and off they run!
Its funny, Pete and Dud come across as very polite and quite reserved compared to people on TV today.
The ‘improvised’ sketch is essentially one they first did a few years earlier.
As soon as Pete started I thought "Oedipus/Wardrobe" etc :)
Which one is it? I don’t think I’ve come across it.
Sanskar Maratha ua-cam.com/video/SOTOEvhus2A/v-deo.html
Thanks!
Yep, loosely based on Dud Dreams , Dick obviously had no idea of it.
Can you imagine if this happened in the age of the internet??? 'Cancelled!!!! Next?'.
Oh my god this is the funniest thing in the world 🤣
Kirk Douglas was such a gentleman in this show.
Yes, that generation has a lot more control over their mouths-more proper and kind.
He was a slime.
yea..the fact that he cheated on his wife every chance he got..has nothing to do with his being a gentleman
@@praisejoy3 to bad he had no control over sleeping with women that were not his wife
What.... No mention of the comedy genius of Pete and Dud....
I'm sure she was a warm person to Hollywood royalty, like Kirk Douglas. I think Peter's problem was she didn't seem to be a very warm person to small dogs.
Pete was also classing her with all those usually female celebs that carry around a small dog with them more like an accessory .
Dudley Moore reminds me here of Christopher Guest in Spinal Tap.
Eva Gabor was great on Green Acres.
It was one of those programmes that you watched to "Make The World Go Away"...
It suited her Kardashian personality.
Eddie Albert carried most of the show.
She used her complete repertoire of acting skills in every episode, which considering she only had one (remembering her line) ) must have been a real challenge!
We've also forgotten to include Mama Gabor, Jolie. She was reportedly the "Toast of Palm Springs." LOL
Peter was a genius...
I agreed with you Peter,she wasn’t all that pleasant and was annoyingly over exposed on the 60s and 70s chat shows.
They were BRILLIANT...
Dudley's Arthur was one of the finest movies ever made.
Peter rocking Double Denim, cool . Seriously folks a great Comedy Duo and deserve Classic status 😊
Dudley Moore was the best 007
They are nearly doing their Derek & Clive routine.
The Dick Cavett show really gives me the horn.
@@MillwallOlly Zsa Zsa used to give me the Horn.
What about the fourth Gabor sister; Zeppo.
the talent these performers could turn on, improvising on cue, to a request by Cavett. Noir actress Veronica Lake died a few weeks before this show was broadcast and was supposed to have been a guest. Forward to today, I cant watch Graham Norton , the camp Cavett of our age, because todays actors are so vacuous and empty headed. Does anyone else agree?
Maybe they’ve lost touch and they are all risk adverse now. And who can blame them.
I agree. The world is a bore now🙄
Hmmmm 🤔 Didn't Zsa Zsa slap a cop? Your a very brave man Peter.😜
Pete did an appearance late in his career on a chat show with Clive Anderson, worth watching if you can…I remember him saying he had been in the Henry Ford clinic, a very tough regime, you have to build a car before you are let out…..
Can you imagine Peter being on the same chat show as Kardashian? Hahahahha
I know what it is to be rude unintentionally.
When I worked for Monsanto in Brussels, I had a telephone call all the way from the USA, where the HQ was located.
I made some flippant opening remark, which my interlocutor took to be an insult. It wasn't. But I couldn't think how to correct the situation without making myself sound like an imbecile. So I toughed it out.
I never got another telephone call from him.
Love Pete and Dud, but it’s bit of a cheek to claim the womb sketch was made up on the spot. I remember vividly it from their 60’s BBC show ‘Not Only But Also’. In original version Dud climbed into the wardrobe and refused to get out saying ‘I love it in here’ . They changed one reference though for American audience, the joke about the Mets. In the original version Dud’s dad comes home drunk because Fulham, a London soccer team, had won the cup. But it’s marvellous to the two enjoying each other’s company. Offstage Dud was getting fed up with Pete’s rampant drinking.
I remember watching this when it first aired. I knew it when Moore made the remark about reading Freud in a precis verion on a matchbook cover. Also Douglas defending the Gabors.
"Two knobs and brown creaky drawers" (drawers means underpants in uk English) that was clever!
thanks
“In Hungary, Zsa means Sirhan” Dennis Miller
That's very funny!
Great stuff. Kirk defends... oh laugh!
Very gracious of Kirk.
Actually downright rude. There was no need to open his gob after Peter had already acknowledged that he had misspoken.