Elliott Nest

(Left to right) Radio comedy legend Bob Elliott; Bob's son, actor-comedy writer
Chris Elliott; Chris Elliott's daughters Abby and Bridey (born Bridget) Elliott

When Bob Elliott succumbed to throat cancer at age 92 on February 2, a unique family of humorists lost a patriarch, and American comedy suffered the loss of a revered pioneer.

In the early 1940s, Boston-born Bob Elliott was employed as an announcer at radio station WHDH. After serving in the infantry and special services during World War II, he returned as the morning disc jockey for WHDH, where fellow Massachusetts native Ray Goulding had been hired as a newscaster. A forty-plus-year comedy partnership began modestly as off-air banter the two shared to amuse themselves. Years later, Elliott told Gerald Nachman, author of the 2003 book Seriously Funny: The Rebel Comedians of the 1950s and 1960s, “We knew that we were on the same wavelength.”

They soon had their own half-hour radio program, “Matinee with Bob and Ray.” Gifted with what the New Yorker would describe as an “infinite sense of the ridiculous,” the team, noted for the driest of wit and deadest of deadpan, wryly debunked advertising gasbags, political blowhards, and jackleg entrepreneurs, but above all, bit the hand that fed them by targeting radio itself. Bob Elliott told the New York Daily News in 1992, “Our original premise was that radio was too pompous.”

What made the duo remarkably singular was that instead of one being stuck in the role of the straight man, they took turns. Elliott told Mike Sacks, author of Poking a Dead Frog: Conversations with Today’s Top Comedians, “We were both sort of straight men reacting against the other.” Ray Goudling, large-framed and deep-voiced, often portrayed blustery characters, while the smaller, soft-spoken Bob Elliott became best known as Wally Ballou, the adenoidal, inept newsman whose field reports were invariably sabotaged by delayed pickups by his microphone.

In a well remembered bit called “The Bob and Ray Overstocked Warehouse,” Elliott announced, “We have 124 full cans of corned beef, which are clearly stamped ‘San Juan Hill 1898.’ If you do not find this corned beef all you had hoped it would be, just leave word with the executor of your estate to return the remaining unopened cans.” Other faux commercials advertised a flypaper “you’ve grown to trust over the course of three generations” and Height Watchers International.  Gerald Nachman remarked, “They never felt a need to destroy their targets, preferring to tickle them to death with a well-aimed feather.”

 

Famed cartoonist Drew Friedman executed this
"stippling" portrait of Ray Goulding and Bob Elliott.

“Ray and I both grew up with radio,” Bob Elliott would recall. “Our whole hopes for the future was that we’d get into radio.” They won three Peabody Awards for their radio performances and found themselves inducted into the National Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame in 1984 and (posthumously for Goulding, who died of kidney failure in 1990) the National Radio Hall of Fame in 1995.

Audrey Meadows performs with Bob Elliott and Ray Goulding
on the NBC-TV variety program "Bob and Ray."

In 1951, Bob and Ray moved to New York City for their first network radio show on NBC. From 1951 to 1953, they even starred in a prime-time variety show on NBC-TV (pictured above), featuring Cloris Leachman and Audrey Meadows (best known as Ralph Kramden’s cynical wife Alice on Jackie Gleason’s “The Honeymooners”). In the late 1950s, Bob and Ray’s radio routines were adapted to a series of ten pieces for Mad magazine, deftly illustrated by master caricaturist Mort Drucker (pictured below).

Two decades later, Mort Drucker designed the posters for Bob and Ray’s 1970 Broadway debut in “The Two and Only.”

Writer Gerald Nachman called Bob and Ray inventive comedians whose “laid-back, on-target sensibility transcended broadcasting and their own time…Astonishingly, they lasted nearly half a century and remained funny long after radio comedy was dead and buried.”

New York City caricaturist Al Hirschfeld immortalized
the duo for their live 1984 Carnegie Hall appearance.

On the radio dial, their influence could be detected in the enduring popularity of Al Lohman and Roger Barkley, whose reign as a top-rated morning team on KFI AM in Los Angeles in the 1970s and 1980s transcended radio in guest appearances on “The Ed Sullivan Show,” as well as a TV game show and variety program; the longtime WCCO AM broadcasting duo of Charlie Boone and Roger Erickson in Minneapolis, Minnesota; even the nationally syndicated “The Bob & Tom Show.”

Fans who unabashedly declared their debt of gratitude to Bob and Ray have included George Carlin, David Letterman, Jay Leno, Al Franken, Garrison Keillor, and Kurt Vonnegut Jr. Johnny Carson called the team “two of the funniest and most influential humorists of their time.”

In December of 1978, Bob and Ray made a rare appearance in a sketch on “Saturday Night Live,” hosted by Elliott Gould. The following year, the duo was featured in the prime-time television special “Bob & Ray, Jane, Laraine & Gilda” (pictured below), produced by Lorne Michaels and directed by “SNL” veteran Dave Wilson.

Written by Bob Elliott and Ray Goulding, along with, among others, Al Franken and his “SNL” comedy partner, Tom Davis, the frequently hilarious “Finley Quality Network” presentation is highlighted by a brief clip from a Bob and Ray “action film” titled “Bullets Never Kiss” that finds the stars immediately stuck in snail-paced New York City traffic, a commercial for patented, professional shoelace washing, and a show-stopping performance by Bob and Ray, perched on stools, cross-legged with folded hands. in three-piece suits, intoning the chorus to Rod Stewart’s disco hit “Da Ya Think I’m Sexy” with the Not Ready for Prime-Time ladies Jane Curtin, Laraine Newman, and Gilda Radner as the backup trio (pictured below).

 

"Of course, I can't stand disco," Ray Goulding declares,
"I still prefer the acid rock of the late sixties."

Although radio remained their natural habitat, they dipped their toes in motion pictures a couple of times, in the 1982 Al Pacino comedy misfire “Author! Author!” and, in multiple roles, in the 1971 anti-smoking satire “Cold Turkey,” written, produced, and directed by Norman Lear, featuring Dick Van Dyke, Bob Newhart, Tom Poston, Edward Everett Horton, Vincent Gardenia, and Jean Stapleton.

 

Not at all subtly, Ray Gpulding portrays revered
network news icon Walter Chronic in "Cold Turkey."

After Ray Goulding’s death in 1990, Bob Elliott continued performing. He joined the cast of Garrison Keillor’s “American Radio Company of the Air.” He played a bank guard (deadpan, of course) in the 1990 heist comedy “Quick Change” (pictured below), starring Bill Murray, Geena Davis, Randy Quaid, Jason Robards, and Tony Shalhoub. He portrayed the father of real-life son Chris Elliott in both the short-lived sitcom “Get a Life” and the offbeat 1994 comedy “Cabin Boy.”

Chris Elliott attended the National Theater Institute at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center in the spring of 1979. He made a name for himself in the 1980s as a writer on NBC’s “Late Night with David Letterman,” where he also performed sporadically as a variety of oddball characters, including the Guy Under the Stairs, Conspiracy Guy, Fugitive Guy, Chris Elliott Jr., and a nightmarish caricature of Jay Leno (pictured below). "People either loved me or hated me, there was no in-between" he later recalled. "It always feels safer for me to be those kind of characters than try to be likable." In 2007, well after Letterman had moved to CBS, Elliott began appearing regularly on “Late Show.”

In 1986, Chris Elliott starred in the Cinemax special “FDR: A One Man Show” (pictured below), a twisted takeoff on one-man plays, with Elliott’s Roosevelt recalling crossing the Potomac in a rowboat and the Japanese bombing of the White House. By the end of the show, he was smashing watermelons like Gallagher.

In 1989, Chris Elliott published Daddy's Boy, a takeoff on celebrity tell-all memoirs like Mommie Dearest that featured alternating chapters in which Bob Elliott contributed rebuttals to his son's fictionalized recollections.

For two seasons, from 1990 to 1992, Chris Elliott appeared in the Fox network TV series “Get a Life” (pictured below), playing a 30-year-old newspaper delivery boy who lives in an apartment over his parents’ garage. As mentioned, Bob Elliott portrayed Chris’ father, while the mother was played by Elinor Donahue (best known as daughter Betty Anderson on the 1950s sitcom “Father Knows Best”).

In at least a dozen episodes of the surreal show, Chris Elliott’s character was killed, variously by gunshots, strangulation, stabbing, old age, tonsillitis, decapitation, getting crushed by a boulder, spontaneous combustion, even an exploding mattress. Fox executives hated the series, which they found disturbing, deeming Elliott’s character insane.

In 1994, Chris Elliott co-wrote and starred in “Cabin Boy,” a surrealistic, deliriously inspired mashup of an eye-popping children’s storybook with Homer’s The Odyssey, Voltaire’s Candide, and Kipling’s Captains Courageous as sifted through the feverish imagination of producer Tim Burton.

In his sole feature film role, David Letterman's Old Salt attempts to sell
Fancy Lad Chris Elliott a sock monkey in "Cabin Boy."

For a single season on “Saturday Night Live” (the 1994-1995 20^th season), Chris Elliott joined the cast, which included Chris Farley, Norm Macdonald, Michael McKean, Mark McKinney (from “The Kids in the Hall”), Tim Meadows, Mike Myers, Kevin Nealon, Adam Sandler, David Spade, and Janeane Garofalo (who left the show midseason when she judged the writing sexist, juvenile and homophobic).

Chris Elliott tries to seduce Catholic schoolgirl Melanie (Mark McKinney)
in a particularly creepy sketch on "Saturday Night Live."

In 1999, Chris Elliott voiced Dogbert on the two seasons of the UPN animated series “Dilbert” (a bad idea from the get-go in the Moviehouse, since the animators unwisely gave Dilbert an actual mouth). Other voices for the show featured Daniel Stern as Dilbert, comedian Larry Miller as The Pointy-Haired Boss, “D-List” comedian Kathy Griffin as Alice, Jason Alexander as Catbert, and comedian Tom Kenny (best known as the voice of SpongeBob SquarePants) as Asok and Ratbert.

During the last three seasons of “Everybody Loves Raymond,” Chris Elliott had a recurring role as Peter MacDougall, the cellar-dwelling, comic book-collecting brother-in-law of Robert Barone (Brad Garrett), who believes there are “squirrels juggling knives” in Peter’s head.

The character of Peter MacDougall (pictured with his cherished pet Miss Puss)
was introduced as Russell MacDougall and was played in one episode by Paul
Reubens (best known, of course, as perennial man-child Pee-wee Herman).

Elliott appeared regularly on the series “How I Met Your Mother” as the estranged father of Lily Aldrin (Alyson Hannigan). From 2011 to 2014, he starred in the Adult Swim series “Eagleheart” from Conan O’Brien’s production company, Conaco. Ostensibly a parody of “Walker, Texas Ranger,” “Eagleheart” was noteworthy for its graphic violence and genuinely unsettling surrealistic gags.

Chris Elliott, Brett Gelman, and Maria Thayer pack heat in "Eagleheart."

Since 2015, Chris Elliott has costarred in the Canadian sitcom “Schitt’s Creek” (pictured below), featuring Eugene Levy (who created the show with his son and costar Daniel Levy) and Catherine O’Hara.

After graduating from Immaculate High School in Danbury, Connecticut, in 2005, Chris Elliott’s daughter, Abby Elliott, dropped out of Marymount Manhattan College. She took classes at The Groundlings improvisational comedy school In Los Angeles, then began training and performing sketch comedy at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre in Los Angeles.

In 2008, Abby Elliott joined the cast of “Saturday Night Live’” midseason, following the departure of Amy Pehler, and remained on the show through 2012. In a 2009 interview for The New York Times Magazine, Chris Eliott remarked. "I was thinking of the 'Godfather' trilogy the other day. My dad's the Don, I'm Michael (Corleone), and Abby is Andy Garcia taking over in 'Part III.'"

Never mind gossip mongers mentioning Abby Elliott was dating
Fred Armisen during her tenure on "Saturday Night Live"...
Her popularity on the show led to a photo-spread in Maxim.

Abby’s sister, Bridey Elliott, is an actress, best known for her starring role in the independent comedy “Fort Tilden” (2014). David Edelstein, in New York Magazine, called the film “a brisk comedy packed with sharply drawn characters.” The New York Times’ Andy Webster noted that “rarely has a movie so humorously illustrated the meaning of ‘frenemy,’” while Katie Walsh of the Los Angeles Times wrote the film “has an easy, funky groove and captures the sweaty perfection of a New York City summer, where things always look better on Instagram.”

“Both our daughters are incredibly independent,” Chris Elliott told an interviewer. “We never pushed them into the business. We just let them find it. If they love it, they stay in, if not, well, that’s just as good. They’ve mapped out their own courses. It’s great.”

“They’ve inherited my father’s ability to create situations for themselves,” Chris Elliott said of his daughters. “I know it’s a tough business for women. As a father, it’s tough because I know what’s out there. But so do they. They’ve seen my career, and my dad’s.”

In a family snapshot of Abby, Bridey, Bob, and Chris Elliott. Chris remarked, "Until
Ben Stiller's kids start acting, I guess there isn't another three generations in comedy."

“We had so much fun growing up, we’re just goofy around the house,” Abby Elliott recalled. “It’s always been encouraged. ‘Papa’ (Bob Elliott) has always been really dry and funny. When we were teenagers, we really picked up on sarcasm and that kind of comedy.”

"Goofy around the house" with Bob Elliott, Abby Elliott, and Chris Elliott...

Chris Elliott's wife, Paula, whom he met when she was a talent coordinator on "Late Night with David Letterman," told The New York Times Magazine in 2009 that when they are alone - just Chris, Paula, Abby, and Bridey - something happens. "We are really outrageous with each other. It gets really crazy. Singing at the top of our lungs. Dancing. We're goofballs. We just do it, we don't even talk about it. We just wake up and do it." Chris added, "It's a part of what makes us happy."

Abby Elliott pointed out that her father “definitely has a serious side. He could be strict while we were growing up. He’s really a great actor – he’s a deep person. He does a lot of comedy, but he could do great drama.”

Chris Elliott gets dramatic in (left) "Manhunter" (1986), noteworthy as the first
screen appearance of  cannibalistic serial killer Hannibal Lecter (portrayed here
by Brian Cox, a Scottish-born actor best known as Captain O'Hagen in "Super
Troopers" and as Colonel Stryker in "X2"); and (right) in "The Abyss" (1989).