Transcript of Pete and Ben's appearance on THE MERV GRIFFIN SHOW
December 3, 1971
Guests: Joe Flynn
Ben Murphy
Pete Duel
Ken Howard
Barbara Sharma (from Laugh-In)
Bob Hudson
Ron Landry
 
Merv Griffin: You know they all love you, Joe?
 
Joe Flynn: Sure... oh, I made them what they are today, I think. (laughter)
 
Merv Griffin: They're the ones that gave him the dollar...for that appearance. How was he, Ben, was he alright?
 
Ben Murphy: Oh, he was so funny. We were straight men for a week for him. You know every other word that came out of our mouths, Joe had a c(omeback)...
 
Joe Flynn: It was supposed to be a serious part, Ben...
 
Ben Murphy: You know it wasn't.
 
Joe Flynn: I was the undertaker.
 
Merv Griffin: Was he... did he say caustic and rotten things when the camera was off, like he does to me?
 
Pete Duel: We all do that to him, man. We had Rory Calhoun, and Jack Kelly, Paul Fix, Joe...
 
Joe Flynn: A pretty wild (bunch)... I'm surprised people didn't complain about the ethnic outrageousness of that show. We had a guy named Murphy, one named Calhoun, one named Kelly, one named Clint, kind of a... And no fights... no fights...
 
Pete Duel: "Hollywood Bob" Pratt saved us.
 
Ben Murphy: "Hollywood Bob" and his belt! (laughing)
 
Pete Duel: Bob Pratt is a young actor at Universal now, he's a *very* good actor, and he played a...a... kid with a big southern accent. And this you know, this... really doing it *way out* as far as he could, it was beautiful. And he wore this... he made this big leather belt with stars on it and everything and it said "Hollywood Bob" on the back. He goes around putting everybody on, man... it was beautiful...
 
Joe Flynn: (Good job,) I've always admired Peter Deuel, I find Ben to be kind of a snotty kid. (laughter)
 
Joe Flynn: He's a hippie alright. Take some acting lessons and beat it. You know where, ah.
 
Merv Griffin: Hit him, Ben! Don't let him talk to ya like that!
 
Ben Murphy: We've been through this.
 
Joe Flynn: Where Ben works at Universal Studios, they have a head of new talent out there named Monique James. Nice, nice lady.
 
Ben Murphy: Don't blame it on Monique, it's not her fault.
 
Joe Flynn: And she goes around to, ah, different gas stations... (laughter)...and car washes.
 
Merv Griffin: And hires the kids?
 
Joe Flynn: Murphy does a nice job on her windshield. Now Ben did a hell of a job on (her)! (laughter)
 
Joe Flynn: She signed him to a seven year contract.
 
Merv Griffin: You haven't done her windshield yet, have you, Joe?
 
Joe Flynn: No, no. (inaudible)
 
Merv Griffin: Do you guys get along?
 
Pete Duel: Yes.
 
Merv Griffin: I don't mean that to be facetious, but I mean is it very difficult to work in a series?
 
Pete Duel: Yes.
 
Ben Murphy: Really, yeah.
 
Merv Griffin: Do you ever complain about each other?
 
Ben Murphy: Ah...
 
Pete Duel: Not to each other.
 
Ben Murphy: Yes, we do.
 
Merv Griffin: Look it, folks, now watch, I... I could really cause trouble here, watch...
 
Pete Duel: No, we do, we do very well together.

Ben Murphy: Peter, uh...
 
Pete Duel: The only thing he gets... he gets... mad...

Ben Murphy: Peter, uh
 
Pete Duel: About... my smoking and I'm sitting in front of him and he's always... The wind is always blowing towards him.
 
Ben Murphy: No matter where Peter sits, the wind blows the smoke in my face and I don't smoke, you know.
 
Pete Duel: (yawns audibly)
 
Ben Murphy: so I go "PETER!". It's, ah, two seconds before we're on the air and then he flicks it off and I'm going [coughs twice to demonstrate] as the take starts.
 
<Joe Flynn/Merv Griffin schtick prior to commercial break>
 
(upon return from break, guest panel is laughing)
 
Merv Griffin: Now when, when you, you don't get along... (laughter continues during Merv's question)
 
Joe Flynn: Why don't we hit him with Ben?!
 
Merv Griffin: Go ahead, Ben, let it happen... it's alright!
 
Ben Murphy: Joe, on the weekends, retires to his estate behind the big iron gates and I sometimes wonder what's going to happen if that electronic gate doesn't work and you can't get in or can't get out.
 
Joe Flynn: Can't get out! I'll never be heard from again!
 
Merv Griffin: Do they have you behind big iron gates on weekends, Joe?
 
Joe Flynn: Yes, they do... it's called the Menninger Clinic! (laughter)
 
Merv Griffin: When you don't get along, do, do you then go to your agents and complain and then the agents go to the producer and...
 
Pete Duel: We don't have that... We don't have a big problem with each other.
 
Merv Griffin: You don't pal around together though.
 
Pete Duel: Well, we're together eleven hours a day, five days a week! Week after week after week after week, yeah, so you know...
 
Ken Howard: I like the show, because, ah... I saw the last one they had with the swindle, the gentle swindle, you know which I love. They fix it up so that they can get away in the end with the money and then it's still righteous, you know. I love that! That's great writing. (laughs) That's great!
 
Merv Griffin: But it... For anyone who might not have seen it, it's an intersting, ah, story line. I mean interesting, ah... the amnesty you have for one year but nobody knows it, right?
 
Pete Duel: Yeah, nobody. And now it's been changed, it's not one year anymore, it's just, uh, for awhile.
 
Ben Murphy: Because we made it for a second year.
 
Merv Griffin: (That's the problem) The Fugitive had, I mean he had to keep running for years and years.
 
Pete Duel: Well, uh, what's his name, uh... Bo(b), Roy, I'm tired... Roy Huggins, our producer. I just... I forget my own name and Ben's too, so don't, don't take offense. Roy has a... a theory about this, he, uh, believes that the, uh... what was that show that, uh... [snaps fingers] that Italian kid? [host and guest interject to assist] Run for Your Life... Ben Gazzara... uh, did Run for Your Life, at the end of three years they went into their fourth season, the ratings just went [downward whistle]. And no one could figure out why they just started to go out the window and it was because at the beginning of the first year they said the man had three years to live and the three years was up and people just started turning it off subcounsciously. [Electra's note: The premise of RFYL was that the man had two years to live, not three. Pete was correct about the run of the show, it was cancelled after three years.]
 
Joe Flynn?: [off mike] He was gonna die anyway!
 
Pete Duel: It was said he was going to die in three years and that was it. So, we've got amnesty, it's sort of open now, we don't know what's happening, it might not be a year, it might be longer, y'know what I mean? Yeah, it's too bad.
 
Merv Griffin: Are either of you married? (long silence then audience laughter)
 
Pete Duel: Not...
 
Merv Griffin: Are *either* of you married?
 
(both men start to answer simultaneously)
 
Merv Griffin: Wait! Are you married, Pete?
 
Pete Duel: No, I'm not married.
 
Merv Griffin: Are you married, Ben?
 
Ben Murphy: No, I'm not.
 
Merv Griffin: Neither of you are married!
 
Pete Duel: That's correct. I'm not married. (audience laughter)
 
Joe Flynn: You take two guys who spend eleven hours... (audience laughter, clapping)
 
Pete Duel: We don't want to hear it, Joe!
 
Merv Griffin: What about you with that all man show you used to do? Wackiest.. what was... uh, McHale's Navy. I didn't see too many girls around there, pal.
 
Joe Flynn: Well, we had a few nurses in and out of there.
 
Merv Griffin: That was for Borgnine, wasn't it, Joe?
 
Joe Flynn: Yes, well, we had Raquel Welch on that show.
 
Merv Griffin: I didn't know that.
 
Joe Flynn: Yeah, you do, you know it now...
 
Merv Griffin: What did she play?
 
Joe Flynn: A nurse.
 
Merv Griffin: Ah.
 
Joe Flynn: >Scales!<
 
Merv Griffin: Scales? (laughter from guest panel)
 
Merv Griffin: Do you ever date the same girls? (long silence)
 
Merv Griffin: I really stump them with these questions! (audience laughter)
 
Pete Duel: No, um, not at the same time, Merv! (more laughter)
 
Merv Griffin: No, I... I wasn't inferring that, Pete.

Ben Murphy: We trade.
 
Pete Duel: Hmm?
 
Ben Murphy: Sure, we make... we make private deals, don't we, Pete?
 
Pete Duel: No! We don't make private deals! AMERICA, NOW LISTEN! THIS IS RIDICULOUS! Two young fellas who are in a TV series together, you know, of course we don't trade off dates, Merv!! God! (audience laughter)
 
Joe Flynn: He's not familiar with their terminology... (laughter, audience & panel)
 
Joe Flynn: They call it "swapping"! (more laughter)
 
Merv Griffin: They must do the show out in The Valley.
 
Joe Flynn: Yeah, at that club out there. (joke doesn't go over well - audience disquiet and a few boos are audible)
 
Merv Griffin: Do you, Ben?
 
Ben Murphy: Yes, I've... yes, we've been known to date the same (.) lady. But only because it was Peter's friend and then, uh, he introduced her to me and, uh... or it was my friend and I introduced her to him.
 
Pete Duel: Did you and me get together on this? I can't remember this happening. I don't understand what he's talking about.
 
Ben Murphy: [addressing Pete] I'll tell you after the show. It's happened.
 
Joe Flynn: When your producer sees this and hears you refer to him as "What's His Name"... (laughter)
 
Merv Griffin: A word from your local station. ... you won't be working together anyway! (commercial break)
 
Merv Griffin: Happiness on, uh, fourteen feet is the way one publicity man described the group that you're about to meet, made up of five boys and two girls they happen to be, uh, brothers and sisters and, uh, you're going to love the sound they all make together. Now, uh, this show is on right now, it's approximately 20 minutes of one in the morning, but it's very early here in LA. It's, uh, 3 am in the morning [laughter from audience]... no, no it's, um, 6.. uh... 10 after 8, and uh, it's not bedtime yet for these kids, but they'll certainly not be allowed to watch *this* show. Their first appearance on national television... The Rhodes Kids!
 
(music break missing)
 
[Note by Electra: If my memory is correct, there's possibly a segment missing here where Merv questioned Pete and Ben about how they spent their time off, Pete answering that he spent most of his at home. This would have been due, in part, to his driver's license being suspended as a result of his DUI conviction, although it wasn't mentioned on the show.]
 
Joe Flynn?: [line cut on tape] ...obscene phone calls.
 
Merv Griffin: THAT WAS IT! You MAKE obscene... no, no you GET obscene phone calls.
 
Pete Duel: No, I get 'em, Merv. Had some (good) ones, too.
 
Merv Griffin: Have you had good ones?
 
Ken Howard?: Mmmm...
 
Pete Duel: Ahhh... [as if he's about to continue]
 
Barbara Sharma: Is that why you stay home? (laughter)
 
Joe Flynn: Wouldn't you?!
 
Merv Griffin: Ben?
 
Ben Murphy: I don't want to talk about it.
 
Joe Flynn: I'll give out your number on the air right here.
 
Ben Murphy: You don't know my number. Do ya?
 
Joe Flynn: Oh, that's what *you* think... Pete gave it to me! (laughter)
 
(break on tape)
 
Male guest: [off mike] The Attorney General's been here?
 
Pete Duel: What *his* act like? (laughter and a few howls from audience)
 
Merv Griffin (?): Obedience. He sits down and signs (inaudible).
 
Ben Murphy: You know what I wish they would show on that show [Laugh-In]... I, I saw it in one of the green rooms when they were rehearsing it. The rehearsals are incredible, I mean the outtakes.
 
Barbara Sharma: They cut a real lot...
 
Pete Duel: very funny
 
Barbara Sharma: ...of things, but they're really funny.
 
Merv Griffin: Do you guys make live appearances?
 
Pete Duel: We are right now. (laughing) I know it doesn't look that way!
 
Merv Griffin: Ben, are you alright?
 
Ben Murphy: You're asking me?
 
Merv Griffin: Yeah.
 
Ben Murphy: I'm fine...
 
Merv Griffin: You're tired though, aren't you?
 
Ben Murphy: Ah, yes...
 
Merv Griffin: What kind of scene did you shoot all day?
 
Ben Murphy: A lot of, ah, cattle herding. But no cattle. (laughter)
 
Merv Griffin: Now, how does one do that, Ben?
 
Ben Murphy: They take stock footage that we did last year with all the cattle just to save money and then they have us riding the horse going "Whoopee!" with a hat... and, uh, shooting up into the air. There's no cattle.
 
Merv Griffin: Don't the cattle have a union?
 
Ben Murphy: Ah, yeah, but they don't...
 
Merv Griffin: Reruns?
 
Ben Murphy: No. No reruns. And... But, uh...
 
Merv Griffin: How many hours did you shoot today?
 
Ben Murphy: How many hours are there let's see...twelve, twelve hours, no eleven hours --dinner.
 
Male guest1: Whoopee, Ben!
 
Male guest2: You don't get that on the first date, fella! (laughter)
 
Joe Flynn: Twelve hours that's just half a day. I worked a half a day over there, 7 to 7.
 
(break)
 
(brief discussion between Merv Griffin and Barbara Sharma about Johnny Brown from Laugh-In)
 
Merv Griffin: Give our best to Johnny, would you?
 
Barbara Sharma: I will, thank you.
 
Merv Griffin: And all the cast over there at Laugh-In.
 
Barbara Sharma: I'm sorry, John, I got nervous.
 
Merv Griffin: And our thanks to Bob Hudson, Ron Landry, and continued success. And to Ken Russell who's in 1776.
 
Ken Howard or Merv Griffin or both: And Directing the Devil (?) the same film. Had the wrong one.
 
Ken Howard: I wish I was. He must be rich by now.
 
Merv Griffin: Ken Howard... I called him Ken Russell...And to Ernest Borgnine, I love McHale's Navy and continued success. (laughter)
 
Joe Flynn: And all the weight I've lost.
 
Merv Griffin: And to Ben Gazzara and Peter Fonda... (more laughter)
 
Merv Griffin: To Ben Murphy and Pete Duel, our thanks. And goodnight ladies and gentlemen.
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