Trama

Donald Sutherland discusses becoming accustomed to public recognition; Martin Mull performs stand-up and talks about his paintings. Johnny plays a governor corresponding with an old friend, and a commercial spokesman for an album.

Martin Mull does his stand-up performance seated in an armchair, answering mail from his viewers - however, he gives his responses without first reading the questions to the audience. During his interview, he talks about his painting hobby, and shows an example. Then comes the comedy segment, which includes parodies of commercials - the first for dog collars, then a phone service ad featuring a governor calling an old friend, and finally one for compilation albums; during the monologue, Johnny had been told that the tape of the sketches (recorded earlier in the day) had been misplaced and couldn't be found - but before introducing Mull, Johnny was told that the tape has been located. Donald Sutherland first tells of his experience having a phone number that used to belong to Joan Rivers; after getting many calls for her, he started telling some of her jokes about Elizabeth Taylor and Princess Margaret, but found the callers to be lacking a sense of humor. He comments on how his impressions of life in Los Angeles changed from what he thought growing up in Canada. He also explains why he changed his mind about giving autographs - he used to send out personal responses explaining that he believed people are equal, and celebrities shouldn't be elevated - and is now more agreeable about requests. He tells a few other stories about being a celebrity, including being improbably mistaken for Dustin Hoffman. Finally, he recalls having a variety of illnesses growing up, including polio, meningitis and rheumatic fever, which led to much isolation and a reduced need to seek the approval of other people.—lenab9011