Whoopi Goldberg, First EGOT On Set

Whoopi Goldberg came on the Rich Eisen Show as the program's first-ever EGOT winner. The interview covered the Knicks, women's sports, Ghost, and why she has always wanted to be in a horror movie.

Goldberg started following the Knicks at age eight, inherited from her older brother. Her all-time favorite Knick: Walt Frazier. She said Clyde could still give the Knicks a few minutes if they needed him. She grew up spoiled by New York sports. Joe Namath, Willie Mays, Frazier, the elegance and stylistic swag of athletes who played hard and dressed hard. She compared today's game to hers and gave no shade, but the sentiment was clear. Those guys played like you could hit them with a car.

The meat of the interview was the All Women's Sport Network, which Goldberg co-founded with Jungo TV. She pitched the idea to network executives for 18 years and kept getting told nobody wants to see women's sports. She knew otherwise. The network covers women's sports globally, across every sport including wrestling, roller derby, hockey, football, tennis, and formats most viewers have never heard of. It's available on over 1 billion devices in 65-plus countries. Her pitch to ESPN, said directly to Rich: we should be in bed with them. The business bed. The California king business bed. Rich played along.

On the WNBA, Goldberg said they are worth their weight in gold, doing the same work as their male counterparts, and not getting the same respect. On the WNBA draft that night, she said she's lived long enough to see this happen. She got choked up.

Goldberg then walked through how Ghost almost didn't happen for her. Her agent told her the producers didn't want her. They thought a commodity like Whoopi would pull audiences out of the movie. Patrick Swayze, cast as the lead, heard she was not attached and asked why. He said he wanted to do the movie with her. Swayze and director Jerry Zucker flew to Alabama where Goldberg was filming another project, sat down with her, and read together. The rest is Oscar history.

Her favorite scene in Ghost is the ending where Sam says it's the love you take with you. She said it gets her every time because that's what she thinks about with her mother and her brother. She said Swayze was extraordinary and reminded her of Robin Williams, a leading man who wanted to be funny.

She closed with a bucket list: a horror movie where she's the monster, and a race car. She once rode shotgun with Mario Andretti and screamed the whole ride. She played a basketball coach in Eddie and said hanging with Rick Fox, Mark Jackson, John Salley, Nate Archibald, and Dennis Rodman on that shoot was heaven. Rodman reminded her of herself. Own your self. No apologies.

What sport would she have played? Baseball. Because the coaches dress like the players. Team: Yankees.