The new thing in stand-up: chairs

When Billy Crystal wanted help on his one-man stage show, “700 Sundays,” he turned to former stand-up comic turned director and producer David Steinberg.

“He said, ‘Would you go across the country with me and help me on stage and find material?’ ” recalled Steinberg, 63. “We did eight or nine appearances in theaters across the country. Audiences identify with two comedians talking.”

That lesson, Steinberg said, fuels his newest venture, “Sit Down Comedy With David Steinberg.” The six-part series on nostalgic cable channel TV Land premiered Wednesday -- the first episode repeats tonight -- and features Steinberg chatting with the likes of funny men Mike Myers, Bob Newhart, Larry David, George Lopez, Jon Lovitz and Martin Short.

The series was considered a natural for Steinberg -- and TV Land -- said Sal Maniaci, TV Land’s senior vice president of development and production. After leaving stand-up, Steinberg found success out of the spotlight: He became a successful comedy director (“Mad About You,” “Curb Your Enthusiasm”) and executive producer (“Robin Williams: Live on Broadway”). A onetime stand-by for Johnny Carson’s “The Tonight Show,” Steinberg was often called upon to interview such comics as Bob Newhart at events such as the Aspen comedy festival.

Maniaci thought a similar format would work for TV Land: “If we addressed comedians that got their start on TV, it would be a perfect fit for us.” The concept “went on the fast track.”

Just don’t expect hard-hitting questions.

“I am anything but journalistic,” Steinberg said of the show. “I am not probing. I am literally there to find out what’s funny.... It’s entirely spontaneous.”

Steinberg handpicked all of his interview subjects. “I am amazed how receptive everyone was,” he said. “But asking them really put me on the spot.”

But one key interview subject -- the famously press shy Larry David -- came to him.

“I had just finished directing an episode [of “Curb Your Enthusiasm”], and he said to me ... ‘Would you like me do it?’ ” recalled Steinberg. “I said, ‘I would love for you to do it.’... It was a very generous thing.”

Maniaci notes that none of the comics are plugging projects.

“It is just funny conversation,” he said. “When you have someone like Marty Short who is out there, compared to Jon Lovitz who is a little bit more introverted, he was able to get great stuff out of Jon that you hadn’t heard before.”

In a sense, “Sit Down Comedy” brings David Steinberg back to his TV roots.

Steinberg was one of the mainstays on the classic and controversial CBS musical variety series “The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour” in the late 1960s. He is also one of the reasons why the show was canceled in 1969 despite high ratings.

One of the characters he played was a Reform rabbi who would deliver irreverent and inflammatory sermons, many having to do with Moses. In one such sermon, God told Moses to take off his shoes and approach the burning bush. Moses burned his feet and cursed up a storm: “We are not sure what he said, but some New Testament scholars say it is the first mention of Christ in the Bible.”

“It was clever,” Steinberg said, “but you could see that even today that would still” upset viewers.

Tommy Smothers told Steinberg it got the “most negative mail in the history of television.”

CBS told the Smothers that Steinberg could stay on the show but had to put an end to the rabbi character. Steinberg has murky memories as to who decided to defy CBS and resurrect the character. But his subsequent sermon on Jonah did not go over well. The network canceled “The Smothers Brothers.”

Steinberg, however, managed to escape the controversy relatively unscathed.

In fall 1969, he was given his own ABC series, “The Music Scene,” which featured a young Lily Tomlin, and was short-lived. He also was a popular guest on “The Tonight Show”; only Bob Hope appeared on the show more during the Carson era. By the late 1970s, he had switched from stand-up to directing.

“I had always been interested in directing,” Steinberg said. “I had my daughters and I didn’t want to be on the road any more. I still had ‘The Tonight Show.’ Johnny Carson could call me at the last minute” if a guest fell through.

Steinberg acknowledges he misses stand-up. “I wake up with opinions,” he says. “Before my eyes have opened, I have opinions. But now all my friends and my wife get them.”