This week’s Late Night Time Machine takes us back to December 1986 and an episode of The Late Show Starring Joan Rivers that went completely off the rails and ultimately left its host slapped with a three million dollar lawsuit.
First, some background. Our story begins in the fall of 1982, with Rivers guest hosting The Tonight Show Starring Carson. On this evening, Rivers welcomed to the program Victoria Principal, then five seasons into the role of Pamela Barnes Ewing on the hit CBS primetime soap, Dallas. That year, Principal received her first and only Gold Globe nomination for the role.
Rivers, ever the investigator of celebrity gossip, asked Principal about her recent breakup with pop star Andy Gibb. “Did you keep the ring?” Rivers asked.
In her 1993 memoir Still Talking, Rivers recounts Principal denying that the two were ever engaged. “At that moment the audience and the camera disappeared, and we were like two women at a kitchen table,” Rivers wrote. They had a back-and-forth, with Rivers insisting that Principal and Gibbs had entered her dressing room in Las Vegas and shown her the ring.
“Why was it on your left hand?” Rivers asked.
“It’s my best hand,” Principal replied.
“For what?”
Rivers wrote that the show ended on friendly terms, with Principal “sweetly” replying, “I’ll get you next time.”
In her memoir, Rivers says this exchange happened in 1983. But it most likely happened on the September 27, 1982 episode of the program, the first time Principal appeared with Rivers hosting. It was also the same year Principal’s relationship with Gibbs ended.
Principal returned to The Tonight Show with Rivers as host just a few months later, on January 28, 1983. Not long after Principal sat down on the couch, the two addressed the elephant in the room. Principal admitted that she was nervous to return. Rivers replied by saying, “I consider you one of my dearest friends. I don’t know why!” Principal laughed. Rivers told the audience that the pair had had a bit of a “disagreement” the last time she appeared, but that they were not going to bring it up.
But Principal came prepared. As Rivers talks, she flashes a ring. “This is a new one,” she says. “Okay, tramp. Who is this from?” Rivers asks. “And it’s bigger than Andy’s. Good for you.” Principal then says she bought the ring for herself, for her birthday: “Why wait?” Rivers replied: “If that were real, it would cost a fortune.”
Their apparent reconciliation would be short-lived. Minutes later, Principal and Rivers had another row. After the first commercial break, Rivers asks Principal her age, clearly forgetting the guest had just let slip she was 33. “What a thing to talk about!” Principal replies. Rivers presses on, asking Principal about her divorce, first loves, and sex life, all topics that Principal is clearly uncomfortable talking about.
Things mostly recovered by the end of the conversation, until Principal mentions that she was one of the first babies born in Japan after the occupation. River picks up on this right away: “That means you were born in 1945.” “I don’t want to discuss it,” Principal quickly retorts. The image cuts to a wider shot of the couch, revealing Doc Severinsen jokingly examining his own hand.
“Well, will you figure it out?” Rivers asks.
Principal tries to laugh it off. “1950!” she says.
“Sure, 1950,” Rivers replies. “Grow up. I know when the war was over.”
Crosstalk.
“You’ve ruined yourself again, Victoria,” Rivers says to an open-mouthed Principal.
“It’s true!”
“You look great for forty, don’t be ashamed,” Rivers says. “1950, 1950. Okay. Me too.”
In her memoir, Rivers wrote that Principal “stormed off the stage in a fury” once the show ended. Later that year, she interviewed Gibb, who Rivers writes, agreed that Principal had claimed to show Rivers an engagement ring. “She played with the truth a little bit,” Gibb said. Rivers remembers then asking Gibb about Principal’s age at the time of their break-up the previous year. “Same age she is now, I think,” Gibb jokingly replied.
Fast forward to December 15, 1986. Rivers is just two months into her stint hosting The Late Show on Fox, the move that Carson never forgave. On this night, Rivers’ guest is Ken Kercheval, who played Cliff Barnes on Dallas.
Rivers asks Kercheval about the success of Dallas, which by that point had been on for nine seasons. Kercheval says that the first filmed scene of the show was between himself and Principal. This prompts a big reaction from both Rivers and the audience, who are clearly familiar with the pair’s history.
“I’ll send your regards,” Kercheval says. Rivers has other plans. She pulls out a phone from behind the desk and insists on calling Principal to apologize. “You’ve got her number?” a gleeful Kercheval asks. “I got her number years ago, honey,” Rivers replies. And boy did she.
“Did she really date Moses?” Rivers asks as she dials the number.
No one picks up. Rivers tries several more times, the audience on the edge of their seats. “We’re not giving up! We’re not giving up!” Rivers shouts to the audience, as if she’s addressing a political rally.
Kercheval seems to grow a bit more uncomfortable, unsure of the bit he’s walked into. They briefly talk about their respective work as needlepoint artists, but Rivers soon returns to the phone. Kercheval says Principal had plans to travel to Europe.
Rivers gets through for a moment, but the phone line cuts out. She tries again. The audience is loving it, and Rivers is clearly feeding off the energy. She tells the operator that she is calling from “Dr. Rivers Office.” In doing so, she reveals Principal’s phone number. (Rivers’ Late Show aired live on the east coast.) “Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy,” Kercheval says.
“We’ll ask her how her last face lift went,” Rivers says. The audience gasps. “I’m doing it for you,” she scolds them.
Rivers tries to get through one more time as “Dr. Kercheval.” Alas, it does not work. “Call up the number if you remember it!” she says to her audience. They go to commercial break.
With Kercheval still on the couch, Rivers tries one more time. Nothing. Anita Baker and George Duke perform a song. Baker then joins Rivers on the couch and nervously shares her own engagement story. “I saw the Victoria Principal show,” Baker nervously says, shaking her head. She shows her ring. “Be gentle,” Baker says. “He’s a working man.” Rivers takes her hand and asks: “Where is it?” Baker and the audience erupt.
By the end of the episode, Rivers tries calling unsuccessfully at least two more times. “Now this is just rude,” Rivers says.
Several weeks later, Principal filed a $3 million lawsuit against Rivers, “claiming she was deluged with phone calls after the comedian blurted out the actress’ home phone number on her talk show.” Accusing Rivers of sharing Principal’s “private, unpublished” number, the complaint alleged the host intended to ask “embarrassing questions about her personal and private life.”
“It was quite something,” Gerald Edelstein, Principal’s attorney, said at the time. “We think (Rivers’) conduct was malicious, provocative, beyond the bounds of decency and a violation of Victoria’s right to privacy. That’s what we’re prepared to prove in court.”
There is no record of the suit in fact going to court. Asked about the case in a 1993 interview with TV Guide, Principal implied it had been settled, saying simply “Come and see my Picasso.”
