Episode 82: Bob & Noah & Matt & Elliott (featuring Elliott Gould)
I bet you thought this was going to be our “Horse Feathers Revisited” episode, because we’ve been saying for months now that this was going to be our “Horse Feathers Revisited” episode, and what reason do we have to lie? But those plans gang-aft-agleyed when, thanks to friend of the show Scott Alexander, the opportunity arose to interview a very special guest.
As soon as we finished having this extraordinary conversation — on Father’s Day, 2025 — we knew we wanted to get it to your ears as quickly as possible, and save the Horse Feathers commentary episode for July.
And now, on with the show.
Charlotte Chandler, Hello I Must Be Going: Groucho and His Friends, page 243: “When Groucho sang, Elliott Gould stopped blowing up and tossing about balloons. After the song, Elliott commented, ‘That was very good.’
“‘I used to be in show business,’ Groucho responded.”
Everyone knows that Elliott Gould is, as Matthew puts it in his introduction to this episode, “one of the finest screen actors of our time.”
Comedy and football in Horse Feathers (1932) and MASH (1970)
Those of us who’ve read a lot about the Marx Brothers are also aware that Elliott Gould was one of the friends in orbit around Groucho in the 1970s. We remember the photo of Groucho and Gould in bed together (taken for the reissue of Beds, and then reprinted in The Groucho Phile): both with moustaches, both with cigars, Gould with Mouseketeer ears. (It feels like a Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice reference even though it isn’t.) And we remember a smattering of anecdotes about Groucho and Elliott, throughout the many accounts of the Erin Fleming years which fill our bookshelves.
But despite having granted countless interviews over the years, and despite having been scintillating in just about all of them, Elliott Gould has apparently not spoken at length about his years of friendship with the greatest comic performer who ever lived — that is, not until his historic appearance in Episode 82 of The Marx Brothers Council Podcast.
We hope you enjoy this conversation as much as we did.
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Official description: “Yes, you read that right! Screen icon Elliott Gould joins us for a heartwarming and at times profound conversation about his friendship with Groucho. From deli lunches to hospital antics to reflections on Mae West, Erin Fleming, and the meaning of legacy, Elliott offers deeply personal stories with warmth and wit. You’ll even learn what Groucho considered Elliott’s greatest performance.”
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