Jane Pauley and Tom Brokaw walk down memory lane on Morning Joe

>> not many of us these days get a chance -- wait a minute. we'll be talking about his life as an actor and as a person because there is a difference. jane pauley is here, too.

>> and she is a person as well.

>> i'm glad to have that certified and before us. we had all expected that. nice of you to confirm.

>> my pleasure.

>> i think that people know that she is jane pauley through and through. that she doesn't wear one mask in the morning or one mask in one interview and another in another. she is at the center, just rock solid.

>> oh, wow. that's cool. that was a clip from a 1989 tribute to jane pauley on her last day. that was cute. as host of the "today" show. with us now to talk about her latest project, emmy award -winning journalist, jane pauley . she has two specials about baby boomers airing tonight on rltv. " boomers 2.0 a generation reimagined." and also "rethink 50-plus town hall ." we'll talk more about that. i can't believe you're here.

>> boomer shmoomers. let's talk about this.

>> i love her. and you two together.

>> that was very kind, what you said. replay that over and over again, that would be fine with me. tom once was quoted in "the washington post " saying that jane was very realistic about her deficiencies.

>> isn't that a nice way of saying you're transparent and real?

>> this was true. but it was true. i'm a midwesterner. and i'm very realist being about my deficiencies. and as i have grown into my maturity and my boomerness, i'm also more realistic about my strengths of which i have a few.

>> hold on. i've got to ask jane a question here, tom.

>> yeah, he's in charge.

>> is tom realistic about his deficiencies?

>> god, no. be honest.

>> tom has no deficiencies.

>> that's why we got along so well.

>> you just answered it. you just answered it. all right, tom.

>> the deficiency thing only came because she moved to new york and rented an apartment in the only building on the upper east side that was made of blue bricks.

>> i had trouble with that blue.

>> blue brick .

>> you found it for me. then he found me a boyfriend who i later married. 30-something years ago.

>> it was actually meredith who said you think gary's hanging around your office because he wants to be your pal a little more? i said yeah, i think so. she said no, it's all about jane .

>> i think the miracle is that -- the miracle is that i had a more than 30-year career at nbc .

>> right.

>> i'm still here at nbc . though i have to stop at the visitors center and get a guest badge.

>> come on, now.

>> but i'm still here at nbc . if you had told that 25-year-old jane that she would still, at 62, be anywhere near a camera in high definition , you know, but now here i am talking about a boomer special on rltv partnered with aarp. i do a series on the "today" show monthly about reinvention, people 50-plus.

>> there you go.

>> we're still the cool kids .

>> you actually really are. how long did you two cohost together? how many years?

>> five years.

>> just five years.

>> really? was that the breaking point? is that the breaking point? is that when you can't take it anymore? i'm just wondering because we're at five years.

>> we went 13.

>> we're talking a pair.

>> he abandoned me.

>> right.

>> he abandoned me.

>> is that what happens?

>> we had a great run. i must say, you know, everything involved, and in those days, from 1976 when we began until 1981 when we left, there was a lot going on in the world. the election of ronald reagan and the pope got shot. so that got assassinated.

>> now, i would move aside and i would occupy a little stool over in the corner . or if i, you know, to let tom do his thing. or if i was there, my role was to put a log on the fire because this is the best ad-libber in the business. but if he ran out of gas, i would just give him another log. and off we would go.

>> it was a true team effort. we had gene shalit as well. and it became a real family thing. we went through a difficult period, ratings went down for a while. we got back to first place. and everything worked out fine. but it was kind of taking on the world every morning. we had maybe a third of the staff that they now have on the "today" show, and the backing of the network was, as i said, a little chaotic at that time. we got through it, and we got through it together because we were doing two hours every morning side by side . jane was married to gary at that point. and my kids are growing up. and so you go through a lot of experiences in life. and i think the audience tunes into that. they kind of watch it.

>> yeah, morning television -- my friends, you were mentioning that i was going to be here yesterday, you know. suddenly my text lights up. you know, jane . so evidently a lot of people in my demographic are watching you. which frankly is why, you know, we're doing the special. the whole point of it --

>> well, talk about it.

>> well, the whole point of is that, you know, for a while advertisers kind of ignored us. we went off a cliff. 18 to 49 is the sweet spot . i think that was stretched 18 to 54, which i'm history with that number. but between 50 and 60, we owned 75% of the wealth in this country. boomers spend $2 trillion a year annually on consumer goods . we are four times as likely to buy a tablet as a 20 to 29-year-old, primarily because we have the money. we're very much on the internet. like three-quarters of us are on the internet. one-third of us are heavy users. we use it to buy, to shop. we use it to stay connected, you know, with community and so forth. we are still very engaged. one of the guests on the town hall program that's on tomorrow, the two programs, between 8:00 and 10:00 on rltv, one of the guests said that boomers are quickly moving from making money to spending it. and they have money.

>> and power, as a result.

>> and power. so we are changing things for everybody for the better because i've been proclaimed -- in fact, the only credential i have is that costco magazine called me a reinvention evangelisevangelist, but that i am. but no one's going to be talking about reinvention 50-plus after my generation. they will take it for granted. that, you know, retirement is something you move from something to something else. that will be taken for granted. so, you know, gen-xors turning 50 in five years. did you know that? gen-xors, welcome aboard .

>> these numbers that you use, 50. 50 doesn't mean what it used to mean. i remember my mom turned 40, and she thought and everybody thought the world was coming to an end. things have changed so dramatically. you talk about the demos, 18 to 49. phil griffin talks about this all the time.

>> it's a shrinking demographic, joe.

>> it should be -- instead of 25 to 54, it should be 35 to 64. boomers are going to spend their money.

>> yeah. but the 18 to 49 is a cbs executive put it who does research, 18 to 49 is a shrinking demographic. you know, every year it is getting smaller. why would you deliberately pitch your programming to a demographic you know is shrinking?

>> shrinking, right.

>> it used to be, as i was going to say, 40 was a benchmark for women that we didn't look forward to, and i think that is extending for sure.

>> well, get me back. i'm going to be -- 70 is -- 70 is pretty good.

>> it's not looking bad, jane .

>> 73 is pretty good.

>> today is his birthday.

>> we need a birthday cake .

>> i was actually back with some high school friends a couple of years ago in our hometown. we're all the same age. and at the end of the evening, i said to them, who do we remember when we were 18 in this community who was a 70-year-old male? because we were all 70-plus. we could name one guy. everybody had died by the time they got to 65, 66.

>> wow.

>> so this life extension is having an enormous impact. also, we were talking about this earlier, it does create the bulge in medicare and the social services that people have expectations for and what health concerns that we have. and that has to fit into.

>> but what isn't factored into that -- and i'm not policy and i'm not an economist -- but what i do know is if boomers -- those who are not being hammered by the recession, i know yesterday that's what you were talking about, which is a reality, but a lot of us are still engaged in the economy. we are still producers. we're not just --

>> takers.

>> -- takers, but we are still producing and contributing to the growth of an economy. and i don't think that's kind of factored into people's expectations that we suddenly are going to start being, you know, plugged up to machines and sucking money out of the economy.

>> well, that's why i think it's so smart that you're producing programming that appeals to a demographic that is important, powerful, rich and engaged. so then my next question would be --

>> why high definition ? that's all.

>> no. what do you think of morning television?

>> very dynamic. the "today" show that tom and i used to do, they talk about new york being the city that never sleeps . yes, it did. we would arrive in a very quiet city . 30 rock , there was no one here. they maybe had polished the floors, but the floor polishers were gone. today it's so alive. segments are 3 1/2 minutes long.

>> it's earlier.

>> it's like riding a bush in rush hour traffic on the fdr drive . i don't know how the stamina to be a host on the morning shows , it's very, very different. and it's a much bigger -- a bigger audience that americans are still the most productive on earth. we get up early. we go to work. you know, we work late. but i think morning television has always been the freshest, most dynamic part of television. the fact that my friends tell me that you were talking yesterday, you know, people are there. they're really watching.

>> we were talking about it all morning.

>> so many things have changed . well, i told them i had a crush on you growing up.

>> i know, i heard that.

>> the thing is everything's changed --

>> are you saying you got over it?

>> no, i never said that. i'm sorry, do we have any tape from yesterday? did i say i got over my crush?

>> he did not. i can confirm.

>> but everything changes. we talk about how baby boomers are changing. you know, it used to be advertisers would say, you know what? we're not going to try to talk to anybody over 54 because by 54 or 55, they start saving money. their spending habits don't change. it's part of who boomers are. boomers grew up believing they had a god-given right to get whatever the hell they wanted to get.

>> what's new?

>> that doesn't stop at 64.

>> change is our dna.

>> they're going to be spending money till the day they die. and also, you talk about other habits, too. it used to be my family would stop at 6:30 and we'd watch the evening news. people work through that now. and the biggest shock, we went to phil early on. you know, we can't do the 6:00 a.m . stuff anymore. it's garbage. and phil, through the numbers, he goes, that's when the most people watch you. that's when the most influential people watch you.

>> yeah.

>> people get up so early now. they start working early.

>> they work at home . they're on their treadmills.

>> all of these, you know, things that we assumed we knew about boomers and about the economy has completely changed.

>> the news demographic has always been 50-plus. the news about that is that there are just so many more of us.

>> right.

>> but we are getting our news -- i love the newspaper, you know, tell me how much i have to pay you to keep delivering me, you know, this.

>> right.

>> but i also get news all day long, as everybody else does, you know, streaming. you know, you keep checking, refresh, refresh, refresh.

>> right.

>> you know, we're the demographic that's eating that stuff up.

>> yeah.

>> but also, somewhat my children have more in common with their parents than my generation had with their parents.

>> that's the big change is that we are so much closer to our children than we were to our parents and how we see the world and what our interests and tastes are and how they call you nine times a day about everything that's on their mind, the children calling the parents. meredith and i left home. we loved our parents. they were important to us. never called back to say, what do you think we should do about buying a house or taking a job or having a child?

>> or where did you get those glasses?

>> exactly.

>> love your glasses, pop. where did you get them? they're really hip.

>> mine suggested i change my glasses.

>> who wouldn't like that?

>> exactly. who wouldn't like that? you can catch jane pauley on back-to-back shows starting with " boomers 2.0" at 8:00 p.m . followed by "the rethink 50-plus town hall discussion." tomorrow on rltv, a network created in the growing response of power to this demographic. jane pauley , it is so good to meet you and have you on. tom, thank you as well.

>> thank you.

>> happy birthday !

>> you're perfect because jane said so.

>> great to be here.

>> exactly.

>> otherwise i wouldn't believe it.

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>>> the editor of "forbes" magazine, randall lane on the companies you should beu're watching "morn ing joe" brewed by starbucks.