The 66th Primetime Emmy Awards (2014 TV Special)

Billy Crystal: Self - Nominee & Presenter

Quotes 

• Himself - Nominee: Outstanding Writing for a Variety Special and Memorial Tribute to Robin Williams : [tribute to Robin Williams]  he made us laugh... hard, every time you saw him, on television, movies, night clubs, arenas, hospitals, homeless shelters, for our troops overseas, even in a dying girl's living room, for her last wish, he made us laugh, big time, I spent many happy hours on stage, I mean the brilliance was astounding, the relentless energy was kind of thrilling, I used to think if I could me a saddle on him I could stay on for eight seconds I was going to do ok. Robin, Whoopi and I were once in Shea Stadium, in the broadcast booth with the great Tim McCarver, it was Comic Relief Day for the New York Mets and Robin knew nothing about baseball, I asked him "what's your favorite team? And he said "The San Franciscos." So, he was a little lost in the conversation so I got an idea and I said you know Tim we have a great "Russian" player with us and I looked over to him and his eyes became bright, his ears perked up, like he was a little dog that was inside all day and the master came in and said hey, do you want to go for a walk? So, I said what's baseball like in Russia? Without missing a beat, he said well we only have one team: The Reds, well the next pitch was a foul and the ball came screaming at us, we ducked down and slammed the wall Robin turned around and the ball bounced into his hand and he held it up and said "I love America, I think I'm going to defect." He could be funny everywhere, we were such close friends, he would come to our great family fun functions: weddings, bar mitzvahs, that kind of thing and he would sit with my older immigrant relatives like he was "one of the guys" and he would tell them his journey from his little shtetl in Poland to his journey to America, one uncle of mine said " I came to America after World War two and I hitchhiked and Robin said "I waited until there was a 747 and a kosher meal." Well he was a genius on stage, he was the greatest friend you ever imagine, supportive, protective, loving, it's very hard to talk about him in the past tense because he was so present in all of our lives, for almost forty years he was the brightest star in the comedy galaxy but some of the brightest cissexual bodies are actual extinct now. Their energy long since cool but miraculously because they float in heaven so far away from us now, their beautiful light will continue to shine on us forever and the glow will be so bright it'll warm your heart it'll make your eyes glisten, you'll think to yourselves Robin Williams, what a concept!