Phil Rosenthal

And so I would watch the Honeymooners reruns and Jackie Gleason show, which was filmed in Miami Beach where they have the greatest audiences in the world, right?

And I just... My dad was funny.

And so...

Humor was kind of the currency of the house.

When we weren't yelling, we were laughing.

And so I wanted to be like him.

And then I also wanted to be like every funny person I saw on TV.

And that extended to...

Anyone who went for a laugh and then later on the Johnny Carson show, you know, when they would all go on there.

I was just enamored with it and I wanted to be funny on stage like those people.

This was safer, easier, more fun for me.

It's not that I didn't have my friends, but one of the things my friends and I loved to do was watch TV and laugh.

And we would watch, you know, even the game shows that were on after school when we were, you know, now in like elementary school and junior high school.

Those were funny.

They were trying to get laughs too.

I had interest in being an astronaut because the 60s, every kid wanted to be an astronaut.

But then I realized I think the best part of being an astronaut is that you get to go on the Ed Sullivan show.

Before that, I was in the school plays.

When you're a kid, you don't know there's writing, directing, producing.

So I watched The Honeymooners and I said, they're funny.