Evocateur: The Morton Downey Jr. Movie

Hello, folks. What do you know?

- Hello, Lou. - Hiya, baby.

Say, Bennie, I got a new song.

You don't mind if I use the piano, do ya?

Go ahead.

Morton Downey, Jr.: Sit down, you fat bitch.

- Listen, you. - Sit down!

Morton Downey, Jr., I only hope you'd be

as famous as your famous dad.

Just one other question--

how much further can it go?

Joey Reynolds: It became a cartoon.

Glenn Beck: America is at a crossroads.

We must advance or perish.

Glenn Beck, Hannity, O'Reilly, they're all people

saying, you know, what's in their heart.

I think Glenn Beck has become big

because he's the only one telling the truth.

Morton Downey is the folk hero of the United States.

He stands up for what he believes in.

He captures the heartbeat of America.

Downey, Jr.: My audience finally selected a spokesman

that identifies with their needs

and with their dreams and with their frustrations.

We're proud of this flag.

I love those people.

I'll do everything to protect them.

Bob Pittman: I was the programmer who started MTV.

If indeed we have 60 channels of television available

to the American public 24 hours a day,

everything that there is a significant interest in

ought to be represented.

What's curious to me is a lot of critics say,

"Oh, we shouldn't offer that." I mean that's like saying,

"We're only going to put these 20 books in the library

because they're the only ones we can all agree upon are good books."

MTV shook up what TV could be.

We refused to live within

the boundaries of what was thought of as TV.

Good evening. It's time once again to play chicken.

My name is Joe Pyne. We'll test your nerve in just a moment.

But I didn't want to be Mr. MTV my whole life.

I was 30 years old, 31 years old,

and looking for more fun things to do

that I had never done before.

Pyne: With us now is Jerry Rubin.

He advocates disobedience of law.

Pittman: So I set out to find a new talk show.

We started talking about it, you know,

"Remember 'The Joe Pyne Show' from the '60s?

No show like that on TV anymore."

I dislike the fact that you went to Cuba as Castro's guest.

You consort with the enemies of this country.

This alone is reason enough to consider you a menace.

- Taking a hard and fast opinion... - Pyne: You are a disruptor...

- driving the opinion home. - Rubin: Do you wanna hear my views?

No politeness.

I think this is a circus and that you're a fool

and we are not in any way discussing--

You're a liar and a danger to the country.

Pittman: Often, you know, you go back

and recycle an idea, update an idea.

But it's dependent upon finding the person.

Mort had been around radio, talk radio.

Wally George: Morton Downey, Jr.

Now, Morton-- I was on this guy's so-called

conservative radio show.

I resent the charges you made

saying that I was a disgrace to the conservative cause,

that I didn't know what I was talking about.

You are the one, baby, who are a conservative-come-lately.

You're the phony!

Pittman: Mort just understood performance.

Now do you wanna hear some facts?

I am the same kind of phony, Wally--

I am the same kind of phony, if you want to let me answer--

I'm the same kind of phony that you are.

Pittman: How you turn everything into something theatrical.

- Don't warn me, punk! - ( crowd yells )

Pittman: We met Mort in person and we go,

"He could be good."

Stay in your seat. Stay in your seat.

Pittman: He was good on the radio...

but just made for television.

Well, good evening, everybody.

How are ya? I'm Mort Downey, Jr.,

and as you're going to find out in the weeks, months,

and years ahead, certain things really burn my buns, all right?

One thing that's happening is the morality of this country

is on a low ebb and it's getting lower.

It's not getting better.

It's getting worse.

We're going to examine this topic tonight.

And this is where the risers that you guys sat in were.

And he would start kissing the first row of ladies.

Mort just sort of tapped right into that 17-year-old

male, you know, something.

Where other 17-year-olds might be doing other stuff at night,

I mean, we were driving to Secaucus

to go onto "The Morton Downey, Jr. Show."

It was a provocative show to deliberately provoke the guest

and provoke confrontation.

And he took it further than anyone that was on television.

There's a war going on in the streets of America--

a war on drugs and the slime that sell them to our kids.

Former Congressman, Ron Paul,

how can you call for something un-American--

the legalization of drugs?

Because I detest the use of drugs and I think we would

have a lot less drugs used if they were legal.

I think it's part of the American system

to let people make choices about their own personal habits.

He knew how to manipulate.

He could have been a serial killer.

Do you believe that the government should stay

out of our personal business altogether?

Well, it happens to be my-- all right, that's good, guys.

It also happens to be my personal business

if I want to kill my four-year-old kid, right?

- Paul: No, no, no, no. - No?

Wait a minute, wait. You're giving--

you're giving libertarian a distorted explanation.

Rebecca Johnson: If you're not tethered to the facts,

that's incredibly entertaining.

You can just say anything.

Yeah, yeah, you know, you're not tethered to the facts, right.

But I will say this, Mort had amazing charisma on the set.

He related totally on an emotional level.

There was no intellectual level for Mort.

I'll stick to the issues, pal.

If I had a slime like you

in the White House, I'd puke on you.

Who's for prohibition of alcohol in this room?

Who's for prohibition of alcohol?

Three people!

He attacked a guest with a voracity

that was unbelievable and people loved him for it.

I mean they-- they loved him for it.

We get high on the ideas of freedom.

We get high because freedom is worth--

Just say no! Just say no!

You say no! You have the courage to do it.

I think I detect his voice changing.

Maybe his cojones are getting small.

And cut to a commercial. And I said, "Oh, my God!"

That's the kinda class act--

And when you're changing channels and you land on that,

you tend to stop, like you say, at a car accident and go,

"Oh, my God, let me watch this for a minute or two more."

Before that, it was considered very uncool

to be that abusive to a guest.

Well, the other side of that was Phil Donahue.

How in the world does a person become a foot model?

And could you be one?

When we come back, in just a moment.

Richard Bey: The host would do an interview on the stage.

Do you wear high heels? Hang on one second.

Let me get some of the folks back here.

Bey: Then run through the audience

and get their fairly polite questions.

My question's for Herschel.

I'd like to know what got you into ballet.

And here are the fairly polite answers.

I need a hint. How do you get your husband

to do anything around the house?

You know...

Sally Jessy Raphael: I know what Downey was doing.

He was ripping off

every single aspect of Joe Pyne perfectly.

How do you get the last drops of ketchup out of a bottle?

Pittman: We learned that TV was out of step

with the American public.

And what happens?

All the ketchup is forced to the neck of the bottle.

Pittman: That America, after Watergate,

had given up this false politeness.

In the '80s, it was time for it to end.

Downey, Jr.: Quarantine for a person with AIDS, even though we know

AIDS can only be caught basically in sexual ways?

Do you know that it has never been proven that AIDS

can be sexually transmitted?

It has never been proven in a laboratory.

No, I don't know that because

I've spoken to a number of people in the CDC.

I'm in the middle of this, you ought to know that, Mort.

I'm in the middle of research, have been for a number of years.

Downey, Jr.: Are you a research expert? Are you a research expert?

Shut up and let me answer the question.

You shut up. Are you a research expert?

Are you a research expert?

- Why don't you shut up? - Why don't you shut up?

All you're doing is spewing garbage.

Chris Elliott: I was attracted to that kind of awkward,

dangerous atmosphere.

When he first came on the scene,

I was immediately

sort of mesmerized by the show.

Downey, Jr.: A "vecan"?

A vegan, I abstain--

Downey, Jr.: Let me hear what she has to say here.