My brother is out in California co-producing a movie Certifiably Jonathan, a
quasi-documentary about Jonathan Winters. The basic story: Jonathan Winters loses
his sense of humor and visits a number of comedians (such as Robin
Williams and Rob Reiner) to help him get it back.
When I was out in California in August, I had the opportunity to watch
a filming of a segment of the movie. Howie Mandel decided to take
Jonathan to the Target because you can find anything (including a
sense of humor) at the Target. I watched as Howie and Jonathan
first met where
Howie had this look of awe while talking to his idol. For the film
they drove around the store in the handicapped carts making some
pretty funny jokes along the way.
Afterwards I had lunch with Jonathan and the crew from the movie
which was where the picture above was taken. Jonathan spent most of
the time telling stories of his youth, sometimes sad but always in a
funny way.
I know many of you readers are too young or foreign to know who
Jonathan Winters is. But for an American of my generation it was great
fun to meet and talk to one of the funniest people alive.
Jonathan Winters was a somewhat regular cast member on the 70s comedy "Mork and Mindy". I think he played Mork's son with the joke being that on Mork's home planet you were born old and got younger. Obviously, Jonathan made a lot of baby noises during his stint. :)