Joy Behar remembers her first performance for Barbara Walters

Joy Behar didn’t exactly get off on the right foot the first time she was hit late Barbara Walters.

Behar, 82, was one of the original panelists The viewwhich Walters created with Bill Geddie 1997. The January 14 episode of Find your rootsthe television personality recalled the first impression that Walters — who died in 2022 at age 93 – had from her when they met years ago.

“So this friend of mine called me up and he said, ‘Look, we’re doing something for Milton Berle at the Waldorf Astoria, it’s his 89th birthday party. Can you come over and do 10 minutes?’ And I said okay. For Milton Berle! I got excited — no money involved here,” Behar shared Henry Louis Gates Jr.

“I went on stage and I did this whole thing about how… a man can get a woman no matter what age he is, no matter what condition he’s in. Like, look at Milton Berle, he was 89, the wife’s, like , 55 or something. And I did the comparison with Salman Rushdie“, Behar continued. “He hid for 10 years, he married three times. While he was hiding! So I said, you know, ‘Who came to (the wedding)? Was it an Avon lady? Who was that? Anyway, I did that bit and a couple of other things.”

After her 10-minute window was up, Behar went back to her seat and asked her husband Steve Janowitz what he was thinking.

“He said, ‘Yeah, everybody laughed except Barbara Walters,’” Behar recalled.

At the time, Behar thought to herself, “Well, who cares, I’m not going to work for Barbara Walters,” but it wasn’t until a few months later that she received a call “from Barbara Walters’ people” asking her to “try out these other women to see if we can do the job’ that would evolve into The view.

“And then I got the job,” Behar said.

When Gates, 74, asked if Behar ever brought it up to Walters when they worked together, Behar said she did — and revealed what Walters’ explanation was.

“She said, ‘I studied you,’” Behar recalled.

This is not the first time Behar has reflected on the past in recent times. On a recent episode of The viewpp Behind the table podcast, she remembered the advice her agent had given her when she was first offered a spot as a panelist The view in the 90s.

“When I got this job — when was it? 1997? — I was kind of about to get a sitcom. I’d already been on a sitcom and I’d done a pilot,” she said, recalling her stint at NBC ‘s short-lived television adaptation of the 1987 film Baby boom in the late 80s.

“The summons will come that this work shall be done The view with Barbara Walters. Do you know that? did my agent tell me not to take it?” she recalled.

Behar – who has been a panelist on the show for 25 of its 28 years on air, except a short break from 2013 to 2015 – said she knew The view “would be a smart show with (Walters) behind her”, despite her agent’s belief that she would not be paid enough.

She told her agent, “‘It’s in New York City with Barbara Walters. I don’t want to live in LA, I want to live in New York City (and) work with Barbara Walters.’

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Find your roots airs Tuesdays at 8 PM ET on PBS and The view airs weekdays on ABC (check local listings).