INT: The fact that the guests going onto the show [LATE SHOW WITH DAVID LETTERMAN], right, weren't thrown because... 

BH: They may have been. I don't know. I hope not. But I mean I wanted them to understand that, you know, you're here to do a job, I'm here to do a job, and you know for whatever it is, just relax and enjoy yourself, because you know I just remember when Dave started allowing guest hosts. And I don't even know, he's so nervous now, it seems like... I love him to death, but Jimmy Fallon was one of the guest hosts, and he... I don't know if he remembers it or not; I'm sure he probably does. But anyway, after he did the guest host job, and NBC had announced that he was getting THE TONIGHT SHOW, he came back as a guest on the LATE SHOW, and he was like a nervous wreck back there man, and I told him, I said, "You know, I gotta tell you something, man. You're making me nervous. You're driving me crazy here." You know, he said, "Why?" I said, "You're all over the damn place. Relax." I said, "Just go out there." He said, "Well, you know, this is not easy." I said, "I know it's not easy, but just go out there, and sit down, relax and do what you do. Be funny, and just Dave... he'll get you through this. You know, don't worry about it," and he did. And he went out there, and he was pretty good. He was really excellent. And he comes off, and he grabs me and hugs me. And I'm thinking now, "What's wrong with him now?" And he's saying to me, "You really helped me out." I said, "Well, you know, I'm a tell you something. I didn't mean to be helping you out. I just wanted you to relax, 'cause you were making me nervous. You were driving me crazy," you know, and he said he'd never forget... well, it was true you know. And you know, that's the way I looked at it.

BH: You know I've had people come through that show [LATE SHOW WITH DAVID LETTERMAN] like Reese Witherspoon. [INT: Go ahead. It's on YouTube.] It is on YouTube? [INT: Yeah.] Yeah. Well it's true. You saw that, huh? Let me tell you something. Reese is a sweet young lady. A very wonderful mother, I'm sure. Her parents are great. But she came through there one night, and the screen--the entranceway--it's just direct. You can't get lost. But it's direct from where you enter to the desk and the chair, and she went another direction. I don't know how she did that. And she comes back around and goes out the right way, and Dave noticed it. He said to her, "Well where were you going? You know, you went the wrong way." And she kinda threw me under the bus. She said, "Well, I did what Biff told me." And I stuck my head out right on camera, and I looked at her so Dave could see me, and he saw me, and he said, "So what happened, Biff?" And I said, "She doesn't know how to follow directions. It's that simple," you know. And he looks at me, and she turned around and looked at me, and she said--he said, "You can't say that." I said, "Well I said it, and I meant it." And he said, "Well, did that really happen?" And she looks at me as if to say--I said, "Don't even go that road. You know, yeah, that's what happened. You didn't follow..." When she comes off, the next time she's on the show, she comes in, she said, "Now Biff, are we gonna get along today?" And I looked at her, and I said, “It's up to you. It's up to you. We gonna get along fine.” It's not a big deal to me. You know I've had… I just try to be fair. I try to be honest, and that's the best I can do. I try to keep my mouth shut most of the time, because of the fact, you know, if I'm not asked, and it's not directed towards me, it's okay. It's okay. [INT: Okay.]

INT: So if I were to give you some names of some [LATE SHOW WITH DAVID LETTERMAN] guests, maybe with some sort of unpredictable kind of things going on... [BH: I might be able to help you.] Okay, so just tell how you wanted to... say Drew Barrymore. 

BH: Very professional. Very sweet. Very kind. Very talented. I don't know how serious she takes everything she does, but as a result is entertaining, basically. [INT: Joaquin Phoenix on the show when things didn't go quite as planned maybe.] He obviously must be a talented person, because he fooled the hell out of us, and that's for sure. I think everybody, even with the bearded thing, I think you're referring to, he had me in that little movie that he did that time, I mean but, you know, he... when I went up to get him to come down, and he's looking at me. I notice a strange look, like is he catching on to what's going on? Which I was not. I don't know if anyone did. But he's a nice person, real talented. But when he pulled that off, I knew that probably had more talent than I'd seen before, you know.

INT: Now, are you able to convey to your Director or anybody else in the control room if something's a little different [on the set of LATE SHOW WITH DAVID LETTERMAN]? 

BH: Oh yeah. Yeah, when I notice it. But don't forget, I was basically working backstage a lot. I worked out front. I did the whole thing, everything. But yeah, if there was something wrong, and believe me, it got by me a few times where things happened. Someone out of blue walked onto the set [of LATE NIGHT WITH DAVID LETTERMAN] one time I think at NBC; I don't know how that happened. They came in from the back of the studio, but yes definitely. I think they want to know. I think talent wants to know. I mean part of the job is not to find the security, but you have to pay attention and be observant. There's no telling what's going on in those places.

INT: Now, on LATE NIGHT [LATE NIGHT WITH DAVID LETTERMAN], and this is still LATE NIGHT at NBC, the show was considered really innovative, 'cause you, you know, brought in a lot of new ideas that had never been explored before. What was it like, you know, in some of the pre-production and preparing for shows? 

BH: You know, I just thought a mind was a terrible thing to waste in a lot of cases, 'cause I mean some of this stuff was so bizarre. I mean it was entertaining, no doubt about that. I mean we were all young. You know, I had an Afro this big. Dave had hair, you know, and the whole thing. But I mean when you start bouncing yourself off a Velcro wall and jumping into a tank of Alka-Seltzer, you know, it's a little risky to say the least. You know, it's one thing throwing watermelons off the side of a building, another thing hitting the wall. So yeah, it was… Looking at the stuff that they were thinking of was incredibly creative, I mean, you know, and extremely entertaining, and it was great to be a part of. Nothing that I would have done, you know. And believe me, I think on a couple of occasions they, "Do you mind doing this?" And, “No, I'm not gonna do that,” you know. And then on a couple of occasions, you know, I would do stuff that maybe... not intentionally, but I... lose my concentration. Like when I was driving that golf cart and rolled over, you know, drove over Paul [Paul Shaffer]. You know, I'm right there; was nowhere else to go with the damn thing but into the band.

INT: Ok. So anyway, now we're going to do... and some of the name changes going from say NBC [LATE NIGHT WITH DAVID LETTERMAN] to CBS [LATE SHOW WITH DAVID LETTERMAN], I'm not quite sure the audience picked up on subtleties or anything, but was there a different culture moving from NBC to CBS? Did you approach the show differently, the production staff? 

BH: Yeah. I think... well one thing, we were in a theater compared to a studio, and things were a little different. You know, environmentally and everything else, I mean, after all, you know, Dave likes to keep the theater and the studio cold. I think it was between 48 and 52 year-round. Is that what you're asking? [INT: No. I just want to tell me about what it was like on...] The transition? [INT: Yes, yes.] Well you had to be prepared to freeze to death, because you're in a theater, and so in the winter... 48 to 52, and you go right outside, it's the same. But also, we going from I think 160-something audience to 500, and that's a big difference. You got a little bit more to work with, because you have the street. You know, you got the remotes. You got all kinds of stuff going for you, if I understand your question, I hope. [INT: Yeah. It's just working at NBC, working at CBS, was it the same Crew that came from...] No. Just a few of us came from NBC. It was basically a CBS Crew that was being assigned. I think most of the... whoever, and I'm sure it was the Director, Hal [Hal Gurnee], who picked most of the Crew members, but they all, right off the top, seemed to be very familiar with the show, which was major, because I mean I think we only rehearsed it maybe for about two or three shows and then did it. And they were all right on target, you know. And they were talking about the show. They knew what the show was all about and what people did. I mean I walked in there, there wasn't a soul that didn't know who I was from being on-camera at NBC. That's a big deal. You know, that makes life a lot easier for everybody. Of course we had folks that were naturally gonna tell us how it should be or telling them, meaning the Producers and everything, how to do their job, but you know that's the way these things happen too, but you know it didn't work out that way. It's only one person's name up on that marquee, so far as I'm concerned.

INT: Now was the staffing larger at NBC [LATE NIGHT WITH DAVID LETTERMAN]? 

BH: Oh absolutely. No, no... [INT: I mean to say... no, I'm sorry. At CBS [LATE SHOW WITH DAVID LETTERMAN].] Yeah. [INT: How many Stage Managers there?] At CBS? [INT: Yes.] Started out with two. Added one and then on occasion would end up with five to six, depending on what we were doing. [INT: And who would decide the responsibilities and the work flow in that case? Would it be you or someone else?] We would work it out. That's the way it worked. I mean, yeah. We would... between the two of us--the main two--yeah, we would tell 'em. 'Cause they’d come in, the Third or Fourth, "What am I doing? What do I do?" And yeah, we'd end up telling them how to fit in.

INT: Anything specifically different now in the theater [Ed Sullivan Theater]? Like did you deal with props were involved in rehearsal? Any coordinating-- 

BH: You mean at CBS [LATE SHOW WITH DAVID LETTERMAN]? [INT: At CBS, yeah.] Well we had a whole big hallway over at NBC, you know, and here it was a theater, but yet and still, you know, it was a theater compared to a studio. A lot of times we'd have to store stuff outside, you know, for whatever reason. Sometimes if there was a big production coming in the next day, we may have to get the stuff in early. A big band or whatever the case may be. We used a lot--back up in the ciels in the theater for pre-tapes and stuff like that. Yeah, it was different. It was definitely different. It was an adjustment. But no, it all fell into place real quick. [INT: It did.]

INT: And at what point did you start working with Jerry Foley? 

BH: I don't know how many years Hal [Hal Gurnee] was there before he retired, but... Well, I worked with Jerry Foley at NBC. [INT: Oh did you?] Yeah, as a TD, as a Technical Director. He also on the local news, and then he ended up being Technical Director on THE LATE SHOW--LATE NIGHT [LATE NIGTH WITH DAVID LETTERMAN] at NBC, and so I worked with him there. But again, as the Technical Director, you're working with them, but not directly, as you do with the Director himself. [INT: So did forming that cohesive unit that, you know, you all had with Hal, working with Jerry, did that kind of automatic, come quickly, and then you had that same flow and shorthand way of dealing with each other?] Oh yeah. One of the comforts for me personally, I don't know how other people felt about it, including Jerry, was the fact that I was not walking into a situation with strange people. So even when he made the transition from one chair to the other, from the Technical Director to the Director, I knew Jerry, so I kind of felt what he was gonna be looking for anyway. I'm a give Jerry some credit on this because years ago at NBC, Al Roker--they did a pilot show with him. I don't know what this thing was supposed to be. Some kind of midday variety type show that Al Roker would possibly get, and a local Director who Al had been working with was a Director on this pilot thing, and Jerry was the TD. And they had no, he'd said basically no clue as to what they wanted to do, okay. They did it in the studio; we did at 6A at NBC [NBC Studios], and I was assigned as the Stage Manager. So here we are. You're not doing news now. You're doing something different, so I had to help them get this thing together. But one of the things that impressed me was for some reason Jerry knew a lot like I knew about how this thing should be done. And you couldn't come right out and tell the Director or the Producer this, so you had to just do it in a manipulative... not "manipulative," that's the wrong word, but you know in a way--[INT: Subtle.]--subtle way to make sure that everybody was content. And it worked. And I never had to do that with THE DAVID LETTERMAN SHOW, because he always had it in his mind what he wanted, so it was cool. But in this case, they didn't know. And Jerry really impressed me with that, because... and I remember telling him one time, and I said, "You know, if I ever ended up with my show I'd ask you to consider being the Director." I did, and he was not the Director yet. He was not a Director. He was the TD. [INT: So you have that insight. You were able to see… I think for me it kind of seems like you're the calming factor.] I wasn't trying to calm him. I could have said nothing. [INT: Not that you were trying to or not, but it seems like that is what you were.] I was being honest. I was being honest. If I had a show, and he wanted to direct it, he could.

INT: So at this point I kind of got a flavor for what you consider a celebrity or not, but for what the rest of the world considers celebrities, when the guests come on how were you, you know, interacting with them, once again knowing that you may be the last person they saw before getting to David and on set? 

BH: You know, I've had guests come through that show -- celebrities -- and they ask for me to come up. Sometimes they want me to do something with them, you know, that they think is funny or whatever. I remember... whether he was telling the truth or not, I have no idea, okay? But Matt Damon, the first time he came on the show, the Producer of the segment said to me, "We've had a hard time getting him to come on this show." He said, "But he said he would only come on if he met you." Okay? And he told me when he came down, he said, "Did they tell you why I'm here?" And I said, "Yeah." He said, "Well it's the truth." He said, "I wanted to meet you." John McEnroe told me the same thing. It was interesting. You know, I'd looked at them both equally and said, "Both of you need to get a life." And that broke the ice. You know, it was good. You know, "You all need to get a life." But you know, so far... like I said, so far as talent is concerned I have the highest level of respect for it. I understand the insecurity. I've done it myself, so I get it. I get it 100 percent. But on the same account, I also understand respect. Not only for them, but you gotta give it too. And some of these kids are so insecure. I'm sorry. I always remind people about the entertainment business, and I said, "You know, I personally feel anybody who wants to try to get involved they should, but just realize basically what you're dealing with here. You're dealing with two things, and that's just simple: temporary work and rejection. That's all it is." I said, "You can take your biggest star, I don't care who it is, you know, George Clooney, Denzel Washington, Julia Roberts, whoever. You know, I don't care who it is. They're going from project to project. They don't have a job. They incorporate themselves, and they make a lot of money." I said, "You can take probably the $20 million people and count 'em on two hands, but that's it. Everybody else is making money, no getting around that, but they are going from audition to audition, and only one person can get the role. And at the end of the day of that project, they go on to another one. It was a temporary job. And somebody got rejected." It's a tough business.

INT: Now seeing work from that perspective [referring to his opinion that the entertainment buisness is tough]-- 

BH: I mean does that make sense? [INT: It does make sense, and that's what I'm going to ask, because you have that perspective about it. Does it make it, for you, sort of like seeing your guests and keeping them, their equilibrium--] Oh, I don't say that to them. [INT: No, I know you wouldn't, but that's your philosophy, your internal philosophy.] That's my opinion on what I see this business being about. [INT: Right.]

INT: Now would you be able to convey that the same, like if a politician came on [LATE SHOW WITH DAVID LETTERMAN]? Do you find them, do they have different kinds of insecurities or whatever? 

BH: Some do. Some don't. I mean I felt that, you know, some people, regardless of their positions, were intimidated by Dave to a degree. But you know I always felt that they should be relaxed. I've got a couple of situations that you’re referring… I think what you're asking is. I just remember being in Bosnia, and we wanted... the USO was doing a show, and then our show was gonna be live. And I've forgotten who the Secretary of State was at the time, but he was there. You would know it if I could call his name. It's right here, his face. Anyway, he was there, and he told the general who was in charge of USO, "Make sure that Letterman's show starts on time." That's what Dave wanted. He wanted to start on time, New York time. “Make sure it starts on time.” And the general went, "Yeah." Now this is around Christmas of Clinton's last year in office, and so we feel good. Now it's only three of us there. We’re using a lot of military personnel as cameras and everything. And so the Secretary of State walks away, and the general turns to us and turns to one of his people and said, "He won't have a job in about two or three months, to hell with him." So we had to go to work and figure out how we gonna pull this thing off, and Gayle... Gayle King. I'm sorry. What's her name, with the Broadway play? Carole King. Yeah. Carole King was part of the USO thing, and we went to her. I said, "Carole, you gotta help us out. We in trouble. Dave wants to start the show on time," and I told the story about what this general had said. And she said, "Don't worry about it." And she did. She cut her act short, and we started on time. That's just one. I remember... that's one I could tell. I remember different people coming through there that were insecure. Try to calm 'em down, you know. Yeah.

INT: But you also did the animals and ordinary life [segments [on LATE SHOW WITH DAVID LETTERMAN]. You did the Stupid Pet Tricks and the Stupid Human Tricks. What was... can you tell us about prepping and getting ready for something like that? I mean 'cause with the pet, with the pet, I don't know if the rehearsal is going, you know? 

BH: Well, you know, I mean, you know, you try to calm people down and try to keep 'em... 'cause they're insecure, especially people doing pet tricks and Stupid Human Tricks and stuff like that. But I just remember this girl coming on doing Stupid Human Tricks, and she could actually pop her eyes. You remember that? You ever see that? She could pop her eyes out of her head. You know, reverse it. You know, not like people putting their eyelids... she actually flipped it. So she told me she could do that before the rehearsal, and she showed me. And I looked at her, and I said, "You know you actually look better that way?" And she said to me, "Really?" She thought she... and you know I mean... But it calmed her down, 'cause she didn't think it was gonna work. But I said, “That's... I've never seen anybody do that, so yes it's gonna work.” You know, when it comes to... most of those folks are, you know, they doing pranks that they did in college. But all that added to the character of the show, and it was very, very... [INT: Were those fun episodes?] Absolutely, yeah. I enjoyed them. I thought they were great, 'cause you didn't know what was gonna happen. I mean I think Dave enjoyed 'em a lot. I don't know if all of them turned out quite the way he wanted them to, but he would make them work for him and for the show, make it humorous. He could... you know, I remember at NBC [LATE NIGHT WITH DAVID LETTERMAN] when he and a little monkey didn't get along too well. You know, I don't think... and he was younger, and I don't think he got it. He was athletic and quick enough to be able to reflex properly, but you know, anything for a laugh to a degree I guess, you know.

INT: Now you touched on some of what it was like, your role in the remotes, like you know when you have a general basically saying, you know, "I'm not gonna do what you wanted to do." 

BH: He didn't help us. [INT: At all. So how do you, you know, kind of navigate that?] You gotta figure it out right quick. Yeah, it's like an audible. You know you just got to come up with something right quick as best you can. If it doesn't work, it doesn't work. But in the meantime, we knew we would be able to pull it off. That Bosnia thing, first of all I had to talk--‘cause we went over there a week or two before the remotes, and flying back, I told Jerry [Jerry Foley], "This cannot be done by myself." I said, "I need somebody else with me," so Frank Comito, one of the other Stage Managers, came with me. It was good, 'cause the Top 10 was done with these soldiers way at the front of the building, and I'm up here on the stage doing what I do during the whole show. And it was just over the top. We just had to figure it out. As a matter of fact, I think I might have told Frank, "Between the two of us, we gotta find Carole King," and she came through for us big time. And you know, that's the way... you just gotta roll with it in a lot of cases. [INT: Right, to have that ability to just, you know, keep things going, and convey it--] Try. [INT: --to everybody else.] Try, try, try. Try to, because I've had different people just come right out and say, "I thought about it. I'm not gonna do this. I'm not gonna do that," you know. And they’re entitled, you know, they can do whatever they want to do. But you know, asking questions like... I've never tried to tell anybody what was funny and what was not, because... unless they ask. You know, if they ask that's something different. But if they say, you know, and I've gotten it, you know, "So-and-so has recommended maybe I should do this then. Now what do you think?" "Now I don't know what to tell you, man. You know, maybe after you do it I'll tell you whether it was funny or not, but I'm not gonna tell you... if you're thinking about doing it, I think you should try it," or whatever the case may be. I don't know. You know, it's bizarre. [INT: Yeah.]

INT: Now you got to travel quite a bit. [BH: All over the world.] Now, I'd like you to talk about some of the visits, the ones that are most memorable to you and why. But first of all. how were the cities selected? [BH: The cities?] Yeah. When you--did you pick them? [BH: No. Oh you mean...] For your Biff... 

BH: Oh, small town thing [Biff Henderson’s America on LATE SHOW WITH DAVID LETTERMAN]? [INT: Yeah.] No. I didn't pick 'em. They researched those places most of the time. They would tell me where we were going. I'd look at it; see if it was someplace willing to go, and they were all very interesting. They had a research department that not only researched the talent and the guests and all that, but everything. And so they researched it and picked these places that fit the profile of what the show was looking for, which is basically small towns of less than, I don't even think 500 people. Forget about it. I think it was always smaller. I mean no traffic lights in most cases. You know, nothing going on. Just dead. You know what I mean? Yeah, I just remember being out in... I can't remember the town, but it was...Yeah, it was on the Utah/Nevada... [INT: Yeah. Rose...] Maybe. I don't know. It was a bunch of hippies that had dropped out, okay? That's what they were. I'm out there... This town had one little motel, and a coffee shop, and a pizza parlor somewhere down the street. But anyway, the motel was in Utah, and the restaurant was in Nevada on the state line, and the reason so they could have a slot machine, right? Okay? And I'm there. We start running into people, and a lot of this stuff came off of my head. No Writer wrote it, 'cause you can't write some of this stuff. But we were with this older couple, and we're sitting in their house in the living room, and they've been married about 65 or 70 years, and I looked at this man, I said, "So what's the key to longevity in marriage?" He looked at his wife, and he looked back to me, and he said, "She's a hard worker." I went down the street, I run into this lady, and this is where I realize, they said, they told me in this town, they said that the kids here could never go to New York, the said, because they'd just walk out in the street. You know, there was no traffic, nothing. So I said, "Well, you’ve seen any celebrities come through here, through this thing?" She said, "Oh yeah, Jesus Christ came rolling, riding through here one day on his bike." I said, "Oh really?" I said, "I see where you going with this." I said, "And what'd you say to him?" She said, "I asked him for his autograph," and she said, "And?" And she said, "He gave it to me." "And then what?" She said, "He rolled on into the mountains." I said, "You know, I don't need to be here. I need to get out. This is crazy." [INT: So you had that experience…]

INT: And then you went to Ball State [Ball State University] for homecoming [for LATE SHOW WITH DAVID LETTERMAN]. 

BH: Oh for Dave's--yeah, for homecoming. That was great. That was great. That was great. That was interesting. And I think as a result of Dave and maybe not me, but they won homecoming that year I think, which was the first time in a long time, I think because of his putting Ball State on the map to a degree. I think their wealth went up a little bit; I'm sure. [INT: Now I saw some of that, and you were really part of the parade. You know, the drummer and everything.] I was? [INT: Yeah.] Oh boy. [INT: Yeah. I saw you playing the snare drums.] It was good wasn't it? [INT: It was good, yes. Another one [of Biff Henderson’s America] that I saw that I kinda liked, the octogenarian polka dancer. It was in a place called Franklin, Idaho. Really frozen cold outside.] Well, I remember the name of the town Franklin, Idaho. Oh yes I do remember that now. What about it? [INT: Just like when you asked her, "Do you watch David Letterman?" And she said, "Who's that?"] I do kind of remember that vaguely, yeah. She meant it. Again, you know, I've been... Franklin, Idaho. Yeah, that's right. She had no clue. I've been places where I've had some strange food. The first remote we did, the first small town America thing was in a place called Bisbee, North Dakota, which is no longer in existence, okay, from what I understand. And I'm in Bisbee, at one time it was a grain town, and all that went away, and nothing going on in the town at all. And it was the first time I had lutefisk. You know what that is? Lutefisk is a codfish, a white codfish that they used to use back in the days of Vikings, and one fish allegedly would feed a whole army, a boat. And they prepared it in lye. That's what's in soap, right? [INT: Yeah.] Yeah. They prepared it in lye with a boiled potato. The boiled potato wasn't that bad. But it was the worst thing I probably ever tasted in my life, and it's a delicacy out there. People eat it in North Dakota, South Dakota and out that way. Anyway, somebody asked me, said, "You ate lutefisk?" I said, "Yeah, and the lefse," which is a bread. They said, "What did you think about it?" "You mean what does it remind me of?" "Yeah." And I'll never forget. Why is he laughing? You know it? It reminded me of somebody's two-year-old wet, worn out, sweaty sneaker. It was horrible. So I mean that's in a small town. I should have stopped at that point and not done anymore, 'cause I mean honestly that was the worst thing I've ever tasted in my life. So I remember that, I remember Franklin, I do remember that. I remember a small town where I was, and you know, I had to listen to this older guy's story, which wasn't... it was good, entertaining, and we kind of used it, but it wasn't anything to be proud of I don't think, but he was, anyway.

INT: Then there were other sketches--oh… well, there are two that I want to ask you about. You know, the Golf Cart of Death and then the 4:00 a.m. LATE SHOW [LATE SHOW WITH DAVID LETTERMAN]. Do you remember? 

BH: Oh with the police officers? [INT: Yeah.] Okay, the… Well the Golf Cart of Death was something that was I guess created by a Writer, and I just did stupid stuff with it, you know, like just running around. In some cases I'd try to be innovative. You know, there's a lot of stuff like that... I was game for most things. You know, like when they did the show with the hypnotist, you know, and I was hypnotized. Myself and another guy, you know, and got, you know, that was good. What was the other one? [INT: The 4:00 a.m.] Oh the 4:00 a.m. [INT: Yeah, LATE SHOW.] Yeah that was very interesting too, because I didn't know that that's what police officers do on their beat. They just go around in circles. Just keep going around in circles. That's what they do, you know. Looking for trouble I guess. I don't want to say the wrong thing about them, but I didn't realize they just go in circles all night. That would drive me crazy. But it was interesting because nothing happened that night. It would have been... No, you don't want to see anything happen, but it would have been... [INT: So how did that, who conceived of that, just doing the--] I don't know. I really don’t know. I don’t know how that came... it might have been Dave. I'll tell you his mind ran in that type of genius direction, to me, you know. I just thought he thought of things like that.

INT: Were there incidents where maybe you went off-script [on the LATE SHOW WITH DAVID LETTERMAN], or did David ever drop a segment that you had done? [BH: Me?] You know, rehearsed for? No, any of the shows, and how would that have been handled? [BH: Oh, are you talking about my segment or just in general?] No, in general. I'm just talking about like as Stage Manager, how do you handle that unpredictability? 

BH: Oh, it was there. It was there every day. They're always audibles potentially, so, so far as that was concerned, you just had to adjust. I know at times I would have to... early on at CBS, they would change guests, and switch one to the other, and all that kind of stuff. But you know if I couldn't logistically make the move, they'd have to wait. I mean and that happened a couple of times, I do remember. I don't remember specifically, because that's embarrassing, at least to me, but I didn't make it, you know, because I didn't have the guest down in time. The guest might not be ready, you know… And somebody on the floor, you know, whoever, Producer or whoever, didn't tell Dave that "Biff's not down here with the guest," even though I've told him, "I'm not there. I'm not there." And they come back, and then, you know, hopefully nobody looks stupid, 'cause I'm not there, 'cause I can't see what it looks like. [INT: But the Crew, did you sort of have like a fallback position? If something like that happened, you’d just--] They'd have to stop tape and wait. It's a guest. [INT: Oh that's right. It is a taped show.] Yeah. Yeah, they'd have to wait. They'd just have to wait. I mean there's nothing I could do. I saw Dave maybe only once or twice in my entire career introduce somebody and they weren't there. But it did happen.

INT: Now the segment [on LATE SHOW WITH DAVID LETTERMAN], the Hello Deli segment on the street, what were those like, coordinating those segments? 

BH: That's Rupert [Rupert Jee], so you just hope and pray that you get something out of it, you know. And he just being there. He would tell me--and he was very... I hope he enjoyed doing that stuff. I don't know if he did, 'cause he always seemed to be so, you know, maybe that was the humor of it I guess. He didn't seem to be happy doing it, but not totally unhappy you know. That could be just like that too. You know, Hal [Hal Gurnee] might have to go, Jerry [Jerry Foley] might have to get a camera out on that street right quick. That's common. That was very, very, very, very common. Years ago I remember President Clinton, when he was president, he was coming down from over by the Sheraton, and all of a sudden somebody got word he was coming through in a motorcade, they had me go up on a balcony outside the theater to shout at him going down 53rd Street, you know, which was fine, but that's just instant. You know, those are direct audibles, and that was very common. [INT: Which leads me into the whole safety thing.]

INT: How did you deal with, you know, safety on the set, or what precautions or pre-precautions did you have for those? But I just want to ask about some of, like stunts, because generally with us in television, as Stage Managers and stuff, we don't think of stunts like a film kind of thing, you know, with stunts. But you've done, you know, people shooting out of a cannon [on THE LATE SHOW WITH DAVID LETTERMAN], tennis match, car stunts--[BH: Who, me?] Not you, just on the show. This is like, you know, Biff coordinating everything you know. 

BH: Oh, I see. I see. I see. Yeah, yeah, so far as that's concerned, those particular things, like somebody shooting out of a cannon, the coordination so far as I'm concerned was basically crowd control and also safety. Things like that, and making sure that whoever's coming out that cannon got a cue at the proper time to come out, you know, after David's introduced it. But those are stunts that are usually brought in and are professionally done, and so they're in charge for the safety and everything else involved. So it's not as much of a responsibility on us as to make sure the timing is right. [INT: And about how many people, you know, Stage Manager-wise, are involved that you're like directly communicating with?] Well you gotta... somebody with Dave, obviously, who's handling Dave and Paul [Paul Shaffer]. They in the studio, and if it's happening out on the street, then potentially you could have anywhere from three to four, like when they would do the Purina dog chase, that was at least three Stage Managers on the street, you know, to do that. Firing out of a cannon, I mean we had a big production going on, on the street, something from Ringling Bros [Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus] or something like that. They were in charge. They already knew what they were doing, so we were, so far as I'm concerned, our main responsibility was to help security and others with not only crowd control, but making sure no one got in the camera shots. Making sure that they didn't fire out that cannon before, when there was no camera on 'em you know. You know, that kind of stuff. Even though in some cases they may--[INT: That they didn't jump the cue.] Yeah, they didn't jump the cue, yeah. And in some cases they may have an earpiece, maybe not. You know, there were a lot of, a lot of crazy stuff done out on that street now. I mean it was bizarre, and I know the show in some cases ran into probably problems with New York City, trying to authorize this stuff, you know. But they usually went along with us, and it was crazy. I mean, you know, I just remember... it's bizarre.

INT: Yeah. Well, it hearkens back to when you said, like, no two days are alike, right? [BH: Never.] Part of the beauty of being on the show [LATE SHOW WITH DAVID LETTERMAN] and what you do? 

BH: Absolutely. It was never... I could never... I didn't know what to expect when I went to work. I mean I don't recall any day being the same no matter where we were. Every day was different. And I never heard, "That's the way he wanted it," but it was obvious that's the way he wanted it to be, and I'm very humbled and blessed to be part of it, and the fact that that's the way it was, 'cause that really was the charm of it. I used to go home at night... I could get on a train going home, and people would ask me what was on the show today, and I would start laughing or tell 'em some, and they wouldn't believe it. And then next time they said they had to stay up and see it. They said, "You all are crazy. You know, you're just nuts." And I said, "Hey, you know, things happen, man." You know it was so many times that I was out doing things, and things would cross my mind, and just do it, and most times he didn't mind. You know, he's just... I've done things that, I shouldn't say that didn't scare me. I'm sorry. I shouldn't say I haven't done things... I was invited... I've sang the national anthem at a Major League Baseball game. That scared me, but I got through it. You know, I did that. [INT: You remembered all the words, 'cause you know that's a no-no if you forget the words.] Yeah, I got through it. I got through it. There was a lady in the stands that I just focused in on her; she got me through it. But you know, I've done first pitches. This is the kind of stuff you were talking about. And I just remember being at NBA finals when I wanted to go one-on-one with different people, you know, like Kobe Bryant and whoever. And he told me that he didn't have any mercy at all, and he wasn't lying, you know, so I didn't do that, you know. [INT: Super Bowl?] Yeah, a lot of Super Bowls. I mean, you know, I think over the years some of the most... They were all great opportunities. I enjoyed the stuff with the Yankees every year, their spring training. I just thought the team at the time was just a great cast of guys that were totally into what they were doing, and they were also game for humor and comedy. I thought that most Super Bowls people really, the players would participate [INAUDIBLE]. Michael Strahan told me that I was the first one to put him on television other than the coach. Now he told me that. He said that he had never been on any show before until I started incorporating him into these remotes I did for Super Bowls when the Giants [New York Giants] were in it. And his whole thing was about the gap. Dave, and me and the gap. Dave doesn't have one. And he told me that, and I said, "You know, that's great, but you didn't bring me along with you when you went on your next ride did you?" Shoot. You know. But you know, so Super Bowls were great. Most of those folks... NBA, the same thing. It was hard to get the boxers you know. Yeah, they were too focused and concentrated, 'cause we usually showed up the day of. We could get to some of the ring people and different people in the audience. I did some hockey I think once or twice. I don't think I ever did track and field, except for the Olympics. [INT: Olympics, okay.] Olympics, and the Winter Olympics. [INT: Yeah.]

INT: Did you do any NASCAR or anything? 

BH: Yes. Yeah. [INT: Did you like that? What was that like with all of that noise, you know?] Well, you know, I put it like this. The most dangerous things that I've ever seen in my life, the most dangerous thing I ever did was Vietnam, okay? Nothing was more dangerous than that, and nobody else... But next to that, I don't know what's second or third, but one is second, and another's third, and that's boxing and Indy 500. That's bizarre. I mean, yeah. That's bizarre to watch the first time. It's very. It's fast. It's over the top. And I got a chance to drive the pace car. [INT: Was that scary?] No. You're not driving at 200 miles an hour. [INT: But still, but somebody's whizzing by you.] No they're not. The pace car. [INT: Okay, just getting started.] The pace car. Yeah, yeah I just drove it on the track, that's all. That's all I did. Yeah, I actually did that. And I asked the guy, I told him--it was a Corvette, and I told him, I said, "You know what man? I want to buy this--" it was nice too. I said, "I want to buy this car when it's over." And he said, "All right. That's no problem." I said, "Well, you know, how much would it cost?" He gave me some outrageous price. I said, "Wait a minute. It's a used car. Man, what are you talking about? I ain't buying no used car.” And so I, you know, you go trying to get that kind of money for a used car. I don't care it was in the Indy 500.

INT: Well Biff, you know, after 35 years with Letterman [THE DAVID LETTERMAN SHOW; LATE NIGHT WITH DAVID LETTERMAN; LATE SHOW WITH DAVID LETTERMAN] you have so many, you know, really wonderful memories, fun memories, funny memories, but do you have a show that you could describe as the show from hell? 

BH: Literally, yes. Well, there were a lot of great shows, a lot of them that were dangerous, funny, fun -- all that -- disasters. But the one that comes to mind the most was one about a week or so after the Super Bowl in New Orleans. Saints had won the Super Bowl. I've forgotten what year ago it was; it may be about four or five years ago. And we had a picture, there was a senator from Massachusetts that was trying to run for I think Senator Kennedy's seat. [INT: Scott Brown?] It could have been. He was the one that had on a bathing suit? [INT: Yeah, that one.] Okay. And we had his picture up on a billboard across the street, and we revealed that as a joke, and I think they switched it, and it was supposed to reveal the swimsuit, the Sports Illustrated swimsuit contestant winner. When they went to reveal that the sheet didn't come down, so that started this show from hell so far as I'm concerned. And then it went from there, one of the Cameramen had gone up the steps in the back of the theater to go to a dressing room or something, and he fell, and he hurt himself, so EMS [Emergency Medical Services] was coming over to help him. And we were waiting on… [INT: Drew Brees.] Drew Brees, and I think he got stuck in the Lincoln Tunnel with a police escort and couldn't get through. So that's three in less than a half hour, and I figured I'd be incorporated into this. Dave decides he wants to play football. He wants to throw footballs on the stage, which is something he used to do. So he asked me to go out for one, and I did. I went out for it, and he threw it too far, so I came back. I had done my steps to the... I was on the stage, and here are the steps into the audience, and I had my, counted off my pace to the steps. And so we go out for the ball a second time, and I guess I miscounted, 'cause when I went up for the ball I fell down the steps, and I tore my quadriceps in my right leg, and that's the muscle that keeps you standing. And I tried to get up, I got up, and I went right back down. And EMS was there for this Cameraman anyway, so all hell is like breaking loose. Drew Barrymore--Drew Brees is stuck. I'm there, but so that was, I was only there for half of the show, so that was my show from hell. But the bottom line to the story is I went down, but I caught the ball, okay? Let's don't forget that. And that was the main thing. Everything else didn't count, okay? But when I got to the hospital--the two of us, the cameraman, and they’re wheeling us into the emergency room, the doctor's right there, and he says to me, "Biff, we knew you were coming," and I'm saying... I’m saying EMS told them. They said, "It's all over the Internet already." It was all over the place. [INT: Wow.] I got home that night, and my wife... and my son had called. My daughter from Maryland had called. I have a son and a daughter and a granddaughter, they had called saying they had seen it on the Internet already, and that was in the early days of that. So that was my show from hell. I don't know how that sounds to you. [INT: No, I would imagine falling off a step... but you caught the ball.] That's right. [INT: That's right.] That's all that matters. [INT: Okay.]