be greater. the night is young. all the best from cnn. best wishes of the new year. i'm don lemon. >> i'm brooke baldwin. happy new year. >> happy 2015. ♪ welcome joan rivers. >> for 50 years. >> you are not the one to interview a person who does humor. sorry. >> fearless. >> are you serious? >> no big deal to have a woman in the white house. john f. kennedy has a thousand of them. >> no man put his hand up a woman's dress looking for a green card. >> rebounding and reinventing. >> you want honesty? >> on the red carpet.

>> she came in an egg. some people will do anything not to speak to ryan seacrest. >> at her kitchen counter. >> how? >> out front and in the spotlight. where she always liked it best. cnn's spotlight. joan rivers. >> can we talk? >> joan rivers could always talk. >> and realize you are not wearing one? >> with sometimes outrageous jokes, nothing was ever off limits. >> i hate old people. oh, if you are [ bleep ] old, get up and get out of here right now. >> born in 1933, rivers says even as she was growing up in the new york suburbs, she wanted to be an actress. >> i never had a choice. i always say it is like a nun's

calling. >> her show business career did not start until 24 years old. with one failed marriage behind her, moved out of her parents home and tried to get a job as an actress. her acting career did not take off right away, she got her first break writing on the ed sullivan show. >> eddie -- >> and join the iconic second city comedy theater in 1961. >> when you started, it was tougher. women, comediennes were rare. >> they were rare and they did not want to listen to you. it is easier now because i would come on stage and they did not want to hear what i had to say. >> you had to be great, right? >> you had to be stronger and of all my group and i never realized, i was the last to break through and my group was pryor and woody allen. >> i figured if a lord wanted the woman to cook, he would give

her aluminum hands. >> she married edgar rosenberg in 1964. he would manage her here and he would be the focus of his wife's joke. >> i moved into edgar's apartment which was a mistake. it is a man's apartment. a lot of leather and chains. >> the pair had one daughter together, melissa. >> we had a rule that i never was away more than five days. ever. baby, as we used to call melissa. i blew through the night to be a scout mother. i won't wear the lousy outfit. >> you would come home? >> i thought i was always there. there was always a parent in the house. >> in 1965, rivers saw her career get a huge boost when she appeared on "the tonight show with johnny carson" for the first time. >> he gave all of us our start.

my life changed. i went on the show the first time, seven years of struggling out of second city. on the air, he said, you will be a star and the next day, my life was different. >> the start of a 21-year professional relationship with carson and the show. she made regular appearances. eventually becoming the show's substitute host in 1983. >> here's joan rivers! >> but rivers decision to launch her own show on the new fox network in the fall of 1986, becoming the first and only woman to host a network nightly talk show ended her relationship with carson and "the tonight show." >> he should have been proud. i finally after my contract was up, done. took another job. everybody did. cosby, david brenner. we all did. i think because i was a woman, he never thought i would leave. or maybe he liked me better.

the minute i became competition, out to kill me. forever. never spoke to me again. >> the show was canceled in 1987. a few months later, edgar committed suicide in a philadelphia hotel room. >> i was in the house and some idiot called the house and said where is your mother. melissa said please tell her your father killed himself. >> rivers regrouped by doing what she always did. putting her life out in the open. >> is there any area you would not go to? >> no. if i think i want to talk about it, then it is right to talk about it. i purposely go into areas that people are still very sensitive and smarting about. >> why? >> you laugh at it, you can deal with it. that's how i lived my whole

life. if i swear, if i were in auschwitz, i would joke just to make it okay for us. >> i'll show you fear. that's fear. if my book ever looked like this, it would mean that nobody wants me. that everything i ever tried to do in life didn't work. nobody cared. i have been totally forgotten. >> her career surged again when her take on fashion and biting remarks exposed her to a new group of fans. >> you have to wear dead animals. i tried and live ones bite. >> in 2010, she felt she was at the top of her game. >> i think i'm working the best ever have ever worked now. it has all been done to me. what will they do? will they fire me? i have been fired.

audiences not like me? a lot of audiences not like me. i have been bankrupt. my husband committed suicide. it's okay. coming up, rivers gets real about life and death. >> if anything happens, melissa, no, i'm no chicken. i had a great life and an amazing life. if i died this morning, nobody would say so young.

♪ the neighbors would come over and say to my mother, how's joan? still not married? my mother would say, if she were alive. do you know how that hurts? >> joan rivers favorite jokes were about joan rivers. on the ed sullivan show. >> when i was 20, my mother said only a doctor for you. when i was 22, a lawyer or cpa.

24, she said grab a dentist. 26, she said grab anything. if he can make it to the door, he was mine. he found the bell himself. what do you want? >> welcome, please, joan rivers. >> from an early appearance on the sammy davis jr. show. >> i never cooked because if the lord wanted a woman to cook, he would give her aluminum hands. >> i'm sorry i'm late. >> to her comeback with jimmy fallon five decades later. >> this is so embarrassing. i have to sit on this. i'll explain it to you. no, i'm sorry. i'm so embarrassed. >> you don't have to be embarrassed. tell me what? why? >> coming back, i wanted to write it is special for me to be back. very special. [ applause ] >> yeah. so my girlfriend and i decided

we would get matching vagina rings. and -- >> and to celebrate the moment -- i appreciate that. you and your girlfriend? >> yeah. mine is killing me, but apparently i spoke to bruce jenner and hers is fine. >> joan rivers. >> rivers built a landmark career in comedy. the job she said she always wanted. >> i love performing. it's like a drug for me. love what i do. when i can put two thoughts together as a child, you knew that's what i wanted to do. >> i am so thrilled to be here. >> her secret? saying out loud things others would not. >> when i was having my child, i

screamed. when i was having me child. that was during conception. >> i hate old people. i say i hate, hate, hate old people. their bodies. enjoy your bodies now. add a brassaire, this is how i go to the bathroom. >> can we talk? >> can we talk, really, when i look at it, it is really what i say to my audience all the time. i make my audiences face reality and face truth. you will say something and you will go, can we talk here? are we going to tell the truth or not? >> they bought the book "the joy of sex." did you read chapter 11 where you wrap totally up in saran wrap and i lay down on the dining room table and he came home and said leftovers again. >> and wicked humor may have

caused her trouble, but she told comedian louis c.k., laughter is her lifeline. >> i wish i could tell you it gets better. you get better. easy? i have gone up. i have been down. i have been bankrupt. i have been broke, but you do it. you do it because -- because we love it more than anything else. >> bankrupt, broke, rivers had been through everything. including her husband's suicide. >> oh, i'm still angry with my husband. i'll never forgive him. it's been 12 years. people say you will go to heaven and i'll kill him. because of what he do to us and our lives. >> though life wasn't easy, rivers always seemed to find a way to make it funny.

>> how much have you actually had done? >> two full facelifts and little bitties. tweaks. i have a friend in california. what do you think, steve. tell me the truth. he said wait another year or he would say get in here tonight. >> as a fashion critic for e news. >> why the green lips? what a grinch. talk about christmas early. i have not seen lips that green since miss piggy got out of the seat of kermit's car. >> doing stand up, she was certified funny. she was irreverent. >> oh, children on an airplane. lady, lady!

where is casey anthony when you need her? >> angelina jolie. if i could give back. i said easy. >> and absolutely nothing was off limits. >> at this age, larry, my friends are dropping like flies. i wear black always just in case i get a quick call. >> as for her own mortality, rivers was and afraid as she told her daughter melissa on their reality show. >> so listen, all right. if anything happens, melissa. no, i'm no chicken. i've had a great life and amazing life. if i died this morning, nobody would say so young. you're a terrific person. cooper's fine. you're all fine. i've had an amazing life and if

something happens, things are fine and life is fine. >> when we come back, how joan rivers changed everything. >> she blazed a trail obviously for me. all the girls. and in the face of so much adversity.

joan rivers. >> stand-up comic, late night host.

>> are you married? how many kids? six! oh, god! one by one or a litter? >> red carpet diva. this is how we knew joan rivers. >> marie osmond, she makes mother teresa look like a slut. >> where is your diamond? oh, there it is. i'm sorry. >> poor bitch. >> by her groundbreaking career as a woman in comedy may be her greatest legacy. hours after her death, anderson cooper talked with kathy griffin about the woman who was an inspiration, mentor and a friend. >> kathy, i'm so sorry for the loss of your friend. >> i'm going to try to do a good job, but my head is jumbled

because i'm grieving. i also want to say respect must be paid to this woman. she blazed the trail obviously for me, all the girls. in the face of so much adversity. she was a great living example to me. we had many conversations about how it is different for girl comedien comediennes. i said you are in a club by yourself. you are really the one. >> you and i were talking about this a lot. you were saying you spoke a language that really hardly anybody else can understand. >> i think when you talk about women and stand-up, it is different than women who are comedic actresses or women that had a tremendous support system of big powerful producers or multimillion dollar network deals. everything joan did, she created by herself. >> fighting for it. >> she said something to me. i was whining about something.

she said when you are a woman in this business, you have to hold on until your knuckles on white. then you hold on by your elbows and you never let go. we joke with everything. appropriate and inappropriate. she really lived that. i don't think she should have had to fight that hard, but she did. >> also at the time she started doing stand-up, lucille ball was a standup. >> it is diis different about b on the mic all by yourself. >> all alone on that stage. >> you're all alone. i thought it was so cool that the night before she went into the coma, she did an hour-long set at a small theater in new york for the love of the game. she didn't have to. >> that's the incredible thing. the documentary that was made of her recently. >> "a piece of work" is really good. >> if somebody hasn't seen it, they really should. >> it's a must watch. >> i want to show our viewers a clip from that. again, she was out doing stand-up, late at night in small comedy clubs trying out new material. >> and having fun doing it. and taking breaks.

and we would laugh about celebrities that would say this and she would talk about the jokes. i want to show the clip. >> every time i write a joke, i try to remember to get it on a card. why should a woman cook? so her husband can say my wife makes a delicious cake to some hooker? and you wonder why i'm still working at this age. >> by the way, did you like her categories. one file said cooking and tony danza. she would make fun of everything and everyone. >> and herself. >> first and foremost. i have been watching the footage of her earlier appearances of her having to jump higher and try harder. she would not let that overtake

her anger. >> she had that relationship with johnny carson for 21 years. >> he broke her heart. >> for taking a job that she wasn't getting "the tonight show." it was a great opportunity. understandable why she would do it. never spoke to her again. >> that is because she a woman. several men went on to take over "the tonight show" and other late night shows. never a woman. and also joan was so gracious. he made me. i got to give him that. she also later on, years after that happened to her, she was able to articulate how much it wounded her. >> to have lost her husband to suicide and raising a daughter by herself and have to, you know, move forward and make a living. >> absolutely. >> you also point out something before we went on air. she invented a whole new television programming which is the red carpet stuff. >> yes. she took a bunch of celebrities walking into a building and

turned that into two hours of entertainment. she put designers on the map before anyone knew who they were. >> this is the edgar. she was incubating. >> she came in an egg and some people will do anything not to speak to ryan seacrest. >> you had dinner with her recently. >> we closed the restaurant down. i issued the rules. no friend, nobody else, no staff. she had this great joke in her act. i have a staff. sometimes i get lonely and i turn to them and i say staff, i'm lonely. who's going to blank me tonight. she said that at her age that made her funnier. she is making a lady gaga joke, which most 51-year-olds don't do. >> the night before, she was sent to the hospital, she was doing a full set. >> a full hour. not just throwing out a joke or going to see someone else's

show. she always put the audience first, which is your job. i don't know if it really occurred to her. she was always going for the funny. she stopped being startled when celebrities were upset with her. >> there was something sensitive about it. the first time i met her, i was really kind of moved by how vulnerable she was. >> she has been through everything and so much more than anyone else out there. we were having dinner three weeks ago. she would say aren't we lucky. sometimes i get bitter. i would say, no, we're having fun. aren't we lucky to be doing this? this is the best job in the world. >> it says a lot about her. thank you. thanks for being here. you did good. ♪

i hate to have to report this. >> a shock announcement. >> actor robin williams is dead at the age of 63. >> the suicide of robin williams. >> mr. williams' life ended from asphyxia due to hanging. >> try a little faster. see if that picks it up a little bit. >> a brilliant comedian. a celebrated actor. >> dead poets are dedicated to sucking the marrow out of life. >> yet a tortured soul. >> i'll come back in the morning and i'll call you if you let me. >> on camera, he found humor everywhere.