Melissa Rivers talks TV tribute to unapologetic mom Joan: 'She kicked down the door'

USA Today

13-05-2025

Melissa Rivers talks TV tribute to unapologetic mom Joan: 'She kicked down the door'
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One goal overshadowed all others for Melissa Rivers when producing a television special honoring her mother, 'Joan Rivers: A Dead Funny All-Star Tribute.' It had to be hilarious.
'My mom always said, and I say it in the special, when you make someone laugh, you give them a mini vacation, and God knows we need a vacation," Rivers says.
The hourlong tribute airs May 13 on NBC (10 ET/PT), with an extended, uncensored version streaming on Peacock May14. 'The Peacock version is what really happened in the room," Rivers teases.
In the special, taped in November, Tiffany Haddish raps to a rendition of 'Hava Nagila' recalling how Joan's jokes 'split your side like a kidney stone.' Nikki Glaser applauds Joan's candor about aging and plastic surgery, and Aubrey Plaza retires Joan's not-so-politically-correct jokes. Rachel Brosnahan, who cites Joan as an inspiration for Midge on Amazon Prime's 'The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,' rapidly fires off as many Joan quips as she can in one minute. Chelsea Handler praises Joan as 'a pioneer for women in comedy,' explaining 'she walked so that we could run!'
Joan Rivers (born Joan Molinksy), died in 2014 after she stopped breathing during a procedure on her throat. She became the first woman to host a late-night show, was celebrated for her brutally honest appraisal of celebrity fashion on red carpets and built a billion-dollar QVC brand.
'These women wanted to be there,' Melissa Rivers, 57, says. 'I think it's because she kicked down the door. It wasn't a glass ceiling; it was a door, and she kicked it down. And they all know that. They know that they would not be able to do what they do, especially the material they do, if she hadn't made it OK first.'
Patton Oswalt tells the audience gathered at the Apollo Theater for the taping that Joan wrote 70,000 jokes.
'I would find random pieces of paper with five words on it and be like, 'Oh, this is yours. You left it,'' Rivers says. Joan 'would record all of her standup when she was working in clubs and working at new material, and then start to figure out why something didn't work or why something did work. She was very, very disciplined.'
Sarah Silverman, also featured in the tribute, recalls in an interview with USA TODAY that Joan was 'always writing. She was a comic's comic 'til the end, and she still had so much more in her. What a tragic, frustrating death.
'She was 81,' Silverman continues, 'but she was the youngest, hippest 81, with so much more. One thing that really inspires me about Joan is she once said that she didn't feel like she hit her stride in standup until she was in her 70s.'
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Rivers' favorite part of the taping was seeing how her mother's humor can still captivate an audience today.
'Every time on the monitor (in the green room), when one of my mom's clips would roll, everyone would stop and watch and laugh," she says. "And a number of people said to me that night, 'She's still the funniest person in the room.''
Rivers says her mother 'didn't like talking about legacy,' because it "was for people who aren't relevant.' But the tribute gives Joan one more opportunity to bask in the love of a crowd.
'She was truly a writer, and she loved performing live,' Rivers says. 'She loved an audience more than anything.'