| The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson |
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| Interviews | ||
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1991 Scroll down for the video
Johnny Carson: My next guest I’m sure is probably the best known Vulcan in the universe. Do you any other Vulcans on a first name basis? JC: Ah, he’s also made a name for himself as a movie director, with Three Men and a Baby, I’d forgotten he’d done that, and The Good Mother and Funny About Love. And he’s starring in a TV movie airing on TNT Cable TV during the week of April 8th called Never Forget. Will you welcome Leonard Nimoy!
Applause – ST theme
Leonard Nimoy: Long time, twenty-three years.
"You went back to the village where your folk came from?"
And he wrote a letter denouncing them in some newspapers. And they returned a letter to him announcing a reward when he can prove that Jews were gassed by the Nazis. You claim you have some proof and you bring the truth to us and we'll give you this reward. And if you don't accept this challenge we'll be forced to notify the newspapers for that. He took the challenge and he felt responsible. He couldn't let this pass because they'd be calling him a fraud and distructing everything of his past. He took them on and he'd beat them in court. Los Angeles Superior Court in 1981. It was the first time it went into the American law-books that the Holocaust was a legally established fact... is an uplifting story about this guys family and what they went through..."
Scroll down for the video link Johnny Caron: My next guest I’m sure is probably the best known Vulcan in the universe. Do you any other Vulcans on a first name basis? Ed McMahon: Not one. JC: Ah, he’s also made a name for himself as a movie director, with Three Men and a Baby, I’d forgotten he’d done that, and The Good Mother and Funny About Love. And he’s starring in a TV movie airing on TNT Cable TV during the week of April 8th called Never Forget. Will you welcome Leonard Nimoy! Applause – ST theme JC: Good to see you, I mean that. Really good to see you. And I know what you were smiling about when you came around the corner, because I said in the monologue “He hasn’t been with us for a while.” We were looking at the records today and I said “How long has it been since Leonard was on the show Leonard Nimoy: Long time, twenty-three years. JC: Twenty-three years! Things been going well? (laughter) So how come you never wrote? We never heard from you. I couldn’t believe that it was in 1968 I guess, and ah, forgot I had to look it up, somebody told me that you were plugging an album or you’d done an album…. LN: In those days that was probably true, I’d do anything, anything. Well, what was happening was, suddenly I’d got kind of famous with this Spock thing, and it was a very intense identification, and good friends of mine were saying to me “What are you going to do when this show is over?” you know, ‘What do you mean, what am I going to do? I’ll get a job. And there was a question about whether or not I would be able to get out of that character. So I was trying everything! I came on your show and sang for you! JC: That’s right! It was kind of a …. LN: And you said, “Bring that guy back in twenty-three years ‘ (laughter) JC: With a voice like that, this man’s in demand ! (laughter) You know, a lot of people who are not necessarily singers have made albums. One night we had a bunch of albums, and it was incredible – Hugh Downs had made an album, Robert Mitchum, if you can imagine had done some calypso numbers or something and it was probably a period in his career when somebody said, “Hey ob, you’re hot, make an… LN: Yes, sure. JC: Doing the Spock character, where was, as you said such a heavy, heavy identification, and it will probably follow you… and maybe you’re grateful for it because the show… LN: Yeah. (Takes out clear plastic bag with Spock ears) Some kids bring feathers, Vulcans bring ears. (Gives to JC) JC: You see, you brought me some ears! Didn’t they have you back somewhere, I read a few days ago in some town or… where they all put the ears on? LN: Ah, I don’t know.\ JC: I thought you were visiting somewhere, where they were honouring you and the whole townspeople put the ears on… maybe it was one of those Star Trek reunions. LN: Yeah, they do that, they do that. I was in Denver a few days ago for a convention, that’s … that’s probably what you’re thinking of. JC: Yeah, that’s.. Does it bother you in any way that the identification is so strong, that you find it difficult sometimes to step aside and people say, “That’s Dr. Spock doing a role? LN: Ï don’t think so, I don’t think so. I suppose, you know, that there’s a great story in this someplace, but the fact is that I’m a very grateful guy. You know, I mean I’m still around, and, ah, still finding work, still have opportunities, haven’t stopped working since I put the ears on, you know, so what’s there to complain about? Sure there’s a lot of identification, every once in a while I’ll walk down the street and it gets a little embarrassing, somebody yells “Spock!” You know… JC: Yeah, as you said the show could have run forever, almost. LN: Yes, well, this – your network, in all their intelligence – these guys knew what they were doing, you know, they cancelled us twenty-three years ago and we’ve been going strong ever since1 JC: Right, its been a come and go thing, because the fanatics, the fans of Star Trek are Legion! I think they came back and … twenty-three altogether! LN: We went off the air in 1968. We did three seasons on NBC, ’66, ’67, ’68. This is the 25th Anniversary. This year is the 25th Anniversary of the debut of Star Trek JC: That’s incredible! That’s a remarkable effort! (applause) Steady work! LN: Steady work, that’s right! JC: Let me take a break – we have to take a short break. Stay where you are, we’re coming right back. Was is ’68? Gee! BREAK JC: We were just mentioning during the break, your parents were originally Russian immigrant. LN: That’s right. JC: But you never picked up on the language, and you heard that I was learning Russian, which was, I don’t know why exactly?
LN: Well, my folks, we all lived in one apartment – my brother and myself, my parents and grandparents – when I was growing up, and they spoke Russian fluently, but they would not teach it to us because they kept that as a secret language. JC: Ahh. LN: So if they wanted to talk about stuff the kids shouldn’t understand, they spoke Russian. JC: Great idea! LN: Yeah, well, I never got to learn the language as a result, you know. JC: You say you went back about 3 ½ years ago? LN: We went there, my wife and I went there about 3 ½ years ago. They invited us over to show Star Trek IV because it was about whale conservation, and the Russians had just had a moratorium on whale, on commercial whaling. And it was just around the time when Gorbachev had cut down on the liquor supply cause he thought the Russians were too drunk too much of the time. JC: Tried to make it difficult to buy Vodka. LN: Yeah, yeah, he cut down on the store hours and made it tough and there was some humour about that There was a joke going around Moscow – a kid sees a terrible car crash, there was a car burning and he rushed over an pulls a person out of the car, and its Gorbachev. He saved his life. And Gorbachev says to him, “ you saved my life, you can have anything you want.” Kid says, “I want to be buried in Red Square, in the Kremlin” He says, “How old are you?” Kid says, “I’m, seventeen.“ He says, “Why are you preoccupied about where you’re going to be buried? You have your whole life ahead of you. “ Kid says, “No, no, when I go home and tell my father that I saved the guy that cut off his vodka, he’s going to kill me!” (lots of laughter) So they had that there… JC: So you said you went back to the village where your folks came from. LN: Yes, in the Ukraine, and it was a very emotional thing for me because I remember as a little kid hearing about it all the time. You know, the romantic nostalgia about where your parents came from and that sort of thing. It was quite a trip. It was an airplane, it was a train, it was a car, and ah – there it was. JC: But it is kind of nice, there’s something about going back and touching base with your roots. LN: Yes. JC: Even though you don’t remember it much – a sense of identity. LN: Yeh, exactly. JC: Tell me about the movie that your doing called Don’t Forget. LN: Never Forget. JC: I know what its about, but it’s kind of bizarre in this day and age when people … LN: It’s a fresh story, it’s a southern California story, a true story, based on a guy who lives here in Southern California. It’s a story where the good guys win. This guy with his family was taken to Auschwitz when he was a teenager, came out alone – lost everybody. Lost his father, his mother, his sisters, a brother; established a family here in Southern California, and a successful business. Then along comes an organization known as the institute for Historical Review, who actually published a claim that the Holocaust was a hoax, that the Nazis never killed anybody during the Second World War, there never was a Holocaust. He wrote a letter denouncing them in some news papers, and they in turn wrote a letter to him and said that we offer a reward to anybody that can prove that the Jews were gassed by the Nazis, and you seem, you claim that you have some proof. You bring your proof to us, and it you can prove it to us, we’ll give you this reward. And if you don’t accept this challenge, we’ll be forced to notify the newspapers. JC: And he took that challenge. LN: Yes. He took the challenge. It really was kind of .. he felt responsible, he felt like he couldn’t let this pass. Because they would be calling him a fraud, and it was like desecrating everything about his past, you know, so he took them on, and he beat them in court. In L.A. Superior Court in 1981. And for the first time it went into the American law books that the Holocaust was a legal established fact. JC: It’s hard to believe in this day and age that people would question something like that … LN: It’s a nice story, its an uplifting story about what this guy and his family went through, and a lawyer played by Dabney Coleman, wonderful guy named Bill Cox who took on his case. Terrific story! JC: We’ll look forward to seeing it. LN: Thank you. JC: Are you still going to keep going some directing also? LN: Well yes, right now we’re getting ready to make another Star Trek movie. JC: That’s right, Star Trek … LN: Star Trek VI JC: I did a joke about that, and you may appreciate the joke. It wasn’t in any way pejorative, I said “You know the Star Trek cast is getting along in years, you know they’ve been around, and that Star Trek VI is called “The Search for Regularity”(laughter) I hope you don’t mind… LN: I think that’s great, we’re looking for a title. I’ll take that one back to the studio. JC: Yeah, exactly. I know you have to leave, thanks for coming
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