Groucho & Cavett

Discover the enduring friendship between television personality Dick Cavett and his mentor iconic comedian Groucho Marx. Their relationship is chronicled through interviews with Cavett, archival footage and interviews with George Burns and others.

After Jack Paar left and before Johnny Carson replaced him, "The Tonight Show" had a fleet of guest hosts, including Groucho Marx, who brought on Dick Cavett as one of his writers. "I wondered if he would use anything I wrote," said Cavett of that time.

ABC aired "The Dick Cavett Show" three times a week during primetime, considered an unusual schedule at the time. "In fact, when Groucho came on, he said, 'You know you need a secretary to know when this show is on,'" said Cavett.

Groucho was a prolific writer with "a genuine intellect," according to Cavett, despite not finishing public school. His proudest achievement was having a book of his letters published at the Library of Congress.

When Dick Cavett first started doing standup, he quickly learned that performing comedy yourself and writing comedy for another person are two very different ventures. In this outtake from "Groucho & Cavett," Cavett reflects on the trial and error in his early days of standup and the lessons he learned along the way.