Jay Leno: My first guest is an Emmy winning actress. In fact, she holds the record for the most Emmys for best actress, see this would embarrass her, she holds the record as the finest actress in the history of television, she's back there going "Oh, shut up, Jay." The final Murphy Brown airs next Monday at nine.
(End credit theme to Murphy Brown plays and Candice walks out)
JL: How are you?
Candice Bergen: Good.
JL: You look great. That's a great -- is that a jacket? Or a blouse?
CB: I think it is... It's a Chinese blouse.
JL: A Chinese blouse. It's very nice.
CB: Thank you, Jay.
JL: There's a Chinese food joke I could make, but I won't. You look great. You look lovely as always.
CB: I thought you looked extremely handsome as Beyondo. (Referring to earlier skit where Jay was predicting things and had no body.)
JL: Thank you. That's where my body looks best, actually... Now, you know what's fascinating? You grew up here, obviously, in Los Angeles, because your dad, being famous and all. And there's all kind of footage of you as a child, your dad loved to take pictures and film, didn't he? Not many people had movie cameras.
CB: Yes, well there were no video cameras. Yes, many of our life events were recorded, recorded in great depth, actually.
JL: Well, your dad, obviously Edgar Bergen everyone knows, did you know he was kind of putting you on? We have a piece of tape we'll show in a second. I guess you had a turtle that died when you were how old, do you know what I'm talking about?
CB: Yeah, I do, it was my first loss.
JL: Say about twelve, maybe?
CB: Oh no, I was about four or five. I was about five. Yes it was my turtle, Toby. And he died, actually I was at fault. He died because I neglected to feed him.
JL: You know, there's a little brochure that comes with the turtle.
CB: Well, in those days there wasn't.
JL: How long did you not feed him?
CB: I think, for a turtle, a couple of weeks maybe.
JL: A couple of weeks?
CB: Well, you sort of forget the turtle is there, it's not like a dog, they don't bark for food.
JL: You know there's not a lot you can do to a turtle besides feed it. You can't really play with it.
CB: Its not a very active, interactive pet.
JL: So at no point is the child going to think "This thing might be hungry." Did it snap at your hand at any point?
CB: No.
JL: The thing that made me laugh, because it looked like your dad put on this elaborate funeral, did you know he was joing with you at the time?
CB: I didn't quite. I didn't quite. Although, when you see it, it's amazing that I didn't catch on.
JL: The family appears to be in mourning. And you're singing.
CB: Yes. I sang. He suggested that I sing. So I sang a song that was popular at the time called "The Tennessee Waltz."
JL: You know, it's amazing, for a beautiful woman, and a talented woman, you really have a horrible voice. I can say that as a friend. I wouldn't want you to sing in public thinking "Well Jay said I sounded pretty good." You really have a bad... Did it carry on to adulthood?
CB: I've made a kind of specialty out of it, actually.
JL: Okay, show the people, this is what? About 1950, maybe? Take a look.
Clip airs. It is Candice's turtle funeral which she also describes in the very beginning of Knock Wood.
JL: (Wiping eyes jokingly) Ohthat was, oh, that was just one of the most moving funerals.
CB: Bringing tears to your eyes.
JL: You know, I felt so bad for you today, I got you a little... (Brings out a turtle for Candice)
CB: (Holding the turtle in her hand) Oh my god! I'm truly overwhelmed!
JL: There's enough lettuce in there for about three days.
CB: Okay, I'll remember this time.
JL: This is like Toby II.
CB: No, I'm going to call him Beyondo.
JL: That would be lovely. Look! He's taking a liking to you! (The turtle is just sitting in her hand.) He may need therapy, he seems to have gotten into a shell. You want me to take that?
CB: No, no.
JL: You want to hold on to it? Well his cage, his thing with no holes in it is right here. Now we were talking about you winning five Emmys. I was teasing you. Now you're very modest about these things. But that's very impressive. Now you, after five, you said "I don't even want to be nominated anymore." Right?
CB: Well, I just, yes, I didn't put myself up.
JL: Does this embarrass you, this kind of talk?
CB: Moving on...
JL: But that's pretty good.
CB: Oh it was five more Emmys than I ever thought I would win.
JL: Do you screw up a lot on the set?
CB: We rarely screwed up, we were very disciplined, very disciplined.
JL: When you would do a take, how many takes would it take to get something right?
CB: Oh usually we never went more than two takes, we didn't have time.
JL: They would go "You had to keep moving."
CB: Yeah.
JL: That's interesting. So two? See this is a bit odd for me because I called over and I spoke with some of your friends on the show and I said, "What is the average number?" and they just send me an average. Well here, here's a scene take a look.
Outtake clip. Candice is trying to say to Grant, "Okay Miles, I'm giving you five seconds to tell me why you're giving the story to Corky or I'm getting out my rubber bands and paper clips and straightening your teeth." They showed four attempts at this sentence.
JL: Pretty much the whole day seems to have gone by like that. What do you do, as a professional, what do you do when you get the giggles? Because nothing seems apparently funny, you just seem to be giggling.
CB: Well once it went on for twenty minutes where we couldn't stop laughing and you jus tthink of anything. You think of mutilated animals.
JL: Oh.
CB: You think of poor Beyondo here.
JL: Mutilated animals. Oh that would work, yeah.
CB: You think of overtime. And Diane English comes down and gives you a really frosty look and you think, "Okay, I'll just pull it together."
JL: Now you have this finale on Monday. Do you have a lot of guest stars?
CB: We do. We have great guest stars. We have Bette Middler and Julia Roberts and George Clooney came on for a second. We have Mike Wallace and Alan King.
JL: Oh that’s pretty good, that’s pretty impressive. Now what about Dan Quayle. You have the whole thing with Dan Quayle a few years back. Did you ever
try to get him on the show?
CB: No.
JL: Women carry
grudges. Was there ever any kind of make up period? Did he ever go “Oh well, maybe I...” Did you ever get a note? Did you ever hear from him?
CB: No. I, myself, did not. No. There was kind of notes exchanged between him and our production staff. But I’ve never met him.
JL: Has anyone ever turned you down? Have you ever asked guest stars and...
CB: I asked
Jack Nicholson once, who is an old friend. I knew he would say no, but I figured I had to take a shot. And he very politely told me to go fly a kite.
JL: Really? Now the hippest man in Hollywood actually said, "Go fly a kite"?
CB: No, no, no. He said, he calls me Bug, he said, “Hey Bug, I’d love to do it... I don’t do TV." He doesn’t do TV.
JL: I guess you did Carnal Knowledge, right? WEas that the film with him? BR>CB:
Yes.
JL: Now also on the show, you can’t hold on to secretaries. You’ve had a lot of secretaries?
CB: Yes. We had 93. Bette was our last.
JL: Who was really memorable?
CB: This season we’ve had Rosie O’Donnell... We had John F. Kennedy Jr. as a secretary.
JL: Oh really?
CB: Well he wasn’t actually a secretary. But he came on which was great. Quite thrilling.
JL: Now was he a eral hunk in person? Do women go nuts?
CB: I have never seen so many women on our set. The LA basin was drained of women, they were all on our stage. It was just pulsating. Unbelievable.
JL: What was pulsating? Because I would be pulsating if all those women... Now is this an emotional final episode? Did you get caught up in it? Did you cry?
CB: Yes. The morning was difficult and George Clooney came by to do his little piece very kindly. Then I went to thank him and he asked me how I was doing and I just burst into tears. But then I was fine for the rest of the time.
JL: Did he console you?
CB: I just walked away. I was so embarrassed, that I just left.
JL: He didn’t touch you or anything?
CB: No, he didn’t. He didn’t.
JL: Well the show will be on Monday, 9 o’clock, just a wonderful, wonderful run and a great great show. Thanks so much for coming. I hope you like Toby.
CB: I love Toby.
Candice stands up to leave, Jay gets up to hand her the turtle cage.