from 2007
TIM CONWAY
talks about his career

by Scott Wolf

I loved the great Disney films of the 1970s when I was growing up, and Tim Conway was in his fair share of them, including one of my favorites, "The Apple Dumpling Gang" with another comedy legend, Don Knotts. Whether you are most fond of his film work or his roles in "McHale's Navy" or "The Carol Burnett Show," Tim is sure to put a smile on your face.

When there's an entertainer that I truly admire, I always hope that they are a real, down to Earth person. You never know... but, Tim didn't disappoint and is as nice as they come. While he certainly had me laughing during our interview, it was equally as fun to learn about his life and his amazing career.

Still going strong, you can find out the latest at TimConway.com. It's my pleasure to bring you my interview with this Disney Legend.

Scott Wolf: When did you realize that you wanted to be an entertainer and how did you get into it?

Tim Conway: I guess I never really decided. My initial target in life was to be a jockey. I was about 95 pounds when I graduated from high school and although I was a natural athlete… every muscle toned to perfection… and played a lot of sports and everything in high school, I still was interested in horse racing so I was galloping horses at a track in Cleveland. If I hadn’t fallen off of horses as much as I did and hadn’t been terrified of horses I think I would have continued in that field.

Then I went to college for four years at Bowling Green State University. After that I went into the army… ours… for two years and I was in Seattle. As you know, we were not attacked there so I feel responsible for saving that town, although they’ve never sent me any kind of an accommodation, but hey, that’s the way it goes.

Then I came out of the army and I just happened to fall in to doing promotion work at a radio station in Cleveland. There was an opening there. As a matter of fact, Jack Riley, who eventually ended up on “The Bob Newhart Show” was working there. He said, “You know, I’m going in to the army and you’re coming out of the army. This job I’m doing (in television) is open so why don’t you go down there?” It was just a job writing promos, like “Tonight…” whatever and throw a slide up. Eventually, I got into acting in promotion stuff and things like that and the next thing you know I was directing. So I was actually a director in television.

We had a morning show. I talked them into doing a morning show with a host, Ernie Anderson, who eventually became the voice of ABC… the guy who used to do, “(in a deep voice) On the Love Boat…” He was the talent, I was the director. He had very little talent and I had never directed, so it was a mess.

The first week we were supposed to have a movie that would start at 9:00 and end at 10:30. I couldn’t figure out how to back time the movie so it would end at 10:30 so the first week we had no endings to any of the movies. So people would call and say, “What happened?” and I’d say, "Hey, 'Citizen Kane'... it's a sled... Rosebud." So we decided to play all the endings on Friday, so if we missed an ending during the week you could see it on Friday.

SW: Are you serious about that?

TC: Yeah. So it got to be kind of a dumb inside thing. We were supposed to have a guest on the show and we couldn't get any guests so I was always the guest. So Rose Marie from the "Dick van Dyke Show" happened to be coming thru town and she happened to see some of this stuff and said, "You know, this is really hysterical." I said, "Actually, in reality we're fighting for our lives here."

So she took these back to the studio and they said, "Yeah, let's bring this guy out and see what he can do." So I went out, did "Steve Allen." He was on Sunday by then, against Ed Sullivan, so I did about three shows there and went back to Cleveland.

SW: Was that "The Tonight Show?"

TC: He had stopped "The Tonight Show" and went back to Sunday evening in competition with Ed Sullivan, which obviously didn't work out. So they were kind of in the interim. I think Steve's show was actually cancelled after ten or twelve shows after that or something like that. I had done three, went back to Cleveland.

SW: Was it a talk show?

TC: It was originally... yeah. I think the reason I'm in the business is because of the original talk show. I used to stay up all night watching that thing and the guys, Don Knotts, Louis Nye, Tom Poston, the men in the street and Steve and all of the other talent that Steve had an eye for was right up my alley. They were just nuts and I got a chance to work with Don a lot when I came out here. And Don and I got thrown together at Disney and we did a few pictures for them, I think we did about five together. It just blossomed into a great comedic romance. I wrote three pictures for Don and I which we did... independent things, and they did well, too, so we became very very good friends.

I had always admired Don because he had a terrific outlook on what he thought was funny and what he wanted to do in the business which was to play good, clean humor. Funny humor, just family stuff which is where I was pointed. We just got along very well and did a lot of successful stuff together.

SW: So what did you do after the "Steve Allen Show"?

TC: Well, the Producer of "McHale's Navy" had seen me on "Steve Allen" and said, "Do you want to play this character Ensign Parker?" I said, "I've never done anything." And he said, "Well, you've got what it takes to do it, so do you want to do it?" I said, "No. I'm here in Cleveland having some fun so I'm just going to stay here." So the station manager actually fired me so I would come back out here and he said, "You've got to be nuts." So he said, "Go back out there and do that," and I did... and there you go.

SW: I got to work on the "McHale's Navy" DVD sets. I got paid to sit and watch every episode in those seasons. ("McHale's Navy" is available on DVD from Shout! Factory.)

TC: What a torture.

SW: You did that reunion for the DVD. Do you get together with the others often?

TC: Not so much. Ernie (Ernest Borgnine) and I do. He lives not too far and we run into each other. He gives me a bear hug, breaks a couple of ribs. I wait until I'm well again and I try to find him.

SW: What about "SpongeBob Squarepants"?

TC: Yeah, we work together on that.

SW: Do you record together?

TC: Yeah, he plays a character and I play a character so usually we do it together, we go in together, so I see him four or five times a year just on that alone.

SW: How did it come to be that you two are the team of Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy? Was it intentional to have you together?

TC: Yeah. We're like two old-time heroes in the Barnacle era. We come and save them once in a while and save them from evil.

SW: I've got a five year old, and when I was working on "McHale's Navy" I pointed you out to him and said, "That's Barnacle Boy." That was a big thing for him.

TC: It's funny. I didn't know I was Barnacle Boy. My granddaughter told me, because you do stuff like this and they say it's going to be a cartoon in a year and they ship it to China and somebody draws it and then in a year it's on. I had forgotten about it and my granddaughter said, "Geez, I think that guy is you," and she was right. She discovered me.

More from Tim:
"The Carol Burnett Show," Harvey Korman, Don Knotts and his comedy inspirations

See other interviews

NOTE: The views and opinions expressed by the participants in the interviews are solely those of the interviewee and do not necessarily reflect the views of Mouse Clubhouse. Mouse Clubhouse accepts no legal liability or responsibility for any claims made or opinions expressed within.