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Unusual Format. That effort begins each Monday with a reading of the script in Rehearsal Room 4 at NBC's Burbank, Calif., studios. Flip writes about a third of his material himself and sometimes arouses the ire of his writers by heavily editing the rest. While the reading is going on, an assistant sticks tape on the floor to map out the movements. Rehearsals begin on Tuesday. A general runthrough follows on Wednesday, and Thursday is camera-blocking day, when the performers work with camera crews. On Friday at 5 p.m. there is a dress rehearsal, with final taping at 8 p.m. Both the rehearsal and the show are taped before a live audience, and the best scenes from each are spliced together for broadcast on the following Thursday.
Throughout all this, Flip constantly takes time out to attend to details ordinarily left to stagehands—testing the door chimes on a set or making sure that a champagne-bucket prop is positioned correctly. Because of his painstaking approach, the show is known as something of a sweat for guests. Outside performers on the Carol Burnett or Glen Campbell shows can get away with a three-day commitment; Dean Martin's guests have been known not to see him until the day of the show. But Flip insists on a five-day schedule for his guests as well as for himself.
With all that, performers are eager to appear—and not just for the exposure. Despite Flip's demands, the set is remarkably free from tension, and Flip hand-tailors the material for his guests. "The show is my home," he says, "and I want my guests to be comfortable in my home. I want them to relax and have fun. Occasionally it takes some time to hit off because we have to find the right approach. But once that happens, we're smoking." The stars that he has "smoked" with range from Lucille Ball, with whom he was the rear end of a stage horse to her head, to David Steinberg, with whom he was the sympathetic bartender to Steinberg's milk-drinking mama's boy. Last week he was a sane patient telling his troubles to a nutty psychiatrist played by Dom DeLuise.
The show that was taped for airing this week features a sketch with ex-Footballer Jim Brown, now a movie actor. Geraldine, dressed up as a "Chicken Delicious" delivery girl in a micro-mini and lace-up boots, delivers an order to Brown. After announcing the product—"No fancy ribbons on our meat; what you see is what you eat"—she tries to persuade Brown to find work in the movies for her boy friend Killer, never visible on the stage but always present in her thoughts. "What is he doing?" Brown asks. "He don' do nuthin'," Geraldine replies. "What does he want to do?" Brown asks. "He's doin' it," says Geraldine. "But ain't nobody takin' pictures of him."