Live From New York - James H. Miller [102]
CHRIS ALBRECHT, Agent:
I became an agent at ICM in 1980. My client list as an agent included people like Jim Carrey, Whoopi Goldberg, Billy Crystal, Dana Carvey, Paul Rodriguez, Sandra Bernhard, Keenan Ivory Wayans, Joe Piscopo, and other people. I actually ended up putting a lot of people on that very ill fated Jean Doumanian one-year tenure.
One of my assignments at ICM was, once we knew the people were all leaving and Lorne was leaving and they were going to recast the show, to be the liaison between ICM and Saturday Night Live, so that was a very big opportunity for me. You’d go to the clubs and the network executives would come in and sit in the back. Jean would come in and you’d realize that something could happen that night that would change not only your client’s life but your life as an agent or manager. The fact that there were new opportunities for Saturday Night Live, that they were going to recast this quickly legendary show, made for very exciting times.
BARRY BLAUSTEIN, Writer:
When I got there the first day and I was taking off my jacket, a writer from the office next door came in and said, “I want you to sign a petition to get rid of Jean Doumanian.” It was total turmoil already.
I think one of the reasons David Sheffield and I survived that year is we stayed away from the turmoil as much as possible. We just concentrated on the writing and not the politics. Everyone was bitching and no one was writing.
Dave had worked in local television in Mississippi; I had worked on The Mike Douglas Show in L.A. We were hired separately. We met on the show. We were the last writers hired that year, as a matter of fact, and I think we both realized what a tremendous break and opportunity this was for us. We were surrounded by people going, “I don’t need this job! I don’t need this job! To hell with this!” And I was thinking, “I do need this job. This is the big break. This is the big opportunity.”
JEAN DOUMANIAN:
I made Barry and David write together. Barry’s Jewish humor was wonderful, and David’s southern humor was great as well, but very different. And they were both very smart guys. I thought between the two of them, they’d come up with something that was really original. I think they’re still together on things. I was also very lucky to have Pam Norris as one of my writers. She was a terrific writer, and quite an individual.
PAM NORRIS:
I had been at the Harvard Lampoon, and this was before the Harvard Lampoon was a rocket — when the people working there were goofing off, basically, when you were supposed to be doing something else and instead you were goofing off with the Harvard Lampoon. But there was a writer on the original show, Jim Downey, who had seen some of my stuff in the Harvard Lampoon. And he encouraged me to think about going to the show, and he put in a good word for me with Jean Doumanian.
I was working on Wall Street that summer and had not finished Harvard. So I wrote a few sketches and sent them over there, got interviewed, and got the job. I finally finished college during the writers strike of 1981, when I went back to Harvard. Actually, my diploma was mailed to me. I didn’t get my Harvard diploma handed to me in Harvard Yard; it was handed to me by a production assistant at Saturday Night Live, with very little ceremony.
DAVID SHEFFIELD:
I have mixed feelings about Jean. She gave me my first big break at the networks, and for that I’m eternally grateful, and she had an eye for talent — like finding Joe Piscopo. Her background was in talent, because she was the