Live From New York - James H. Miller [205]
JANEANE GAROFALO:
I had desperately wanted to live in New York City and do a live comedy show from that building — 30 Rock. I just thought it would be the greatest job in the world, and I had friends who had done it and friends who were on it — even though, oddly enough, I had been warned by everyone who had been on it not to do it. I had friends who were writers who had left and a couple of cast members who had left who I was friendly with who said, “You’re not going to like it.” They just felt it would not be a place where I would thrive, especially coming off of Larry Sanders and Ben Stiller’s show, which were very progressive, intelligent, and collaborative television programs.
CHRIS ELLIOTT:
I think people just thought I would go there and do my own thing and, you know, be great on the show. And I was thinking the total opposite — that I would go there and everybody else would write for me and I’d have an easy walk through the show. And neither happened.
JANEANE GAROFALO:
I can still remember one sketch in particular, where aliens had taken some of the male cast members on the ship and had anally probed them and written “bitch” in lipstick on their chests. Is that funny? It was a Maalox moment every five minutes. I had irritable bowel syndrome every day. My drinking just got out of hand. I would credit SNL with being very instrumental to some bad habits that certainly increased.
I wanted to quit after the first week. I phoned my agent and said, “This is not a good fit. There’s something wrong here.” There is a tangible, almost palpable — perhaps the word is “visceral” — feeling of bad karma when you walk into the writers room. There is something rotten in Denmark.
CHRIS ELLIOTT:
There were so many people in the cast. There was no reason for there to be so many people. There were times when I’d get in my Munchkin makeup and sit until, you know, five to one and come out and do one sketch. There was no reason. When the show first started and there was a smaller cast, it was funny to see, like, Belushi doing Marlon Brando and then having to run and change and be in some other sketch back-to-back. And that never happened with us.
JANEANE GAROFALO:
Every Wednesday there was always a great show in there. There were always funny sketches on Wednesday. Just somehow, I don’t know why, writers were doing some really great, funny stuff that was not getting on the air. I don’t know. For whatever reason, that season seemed to be the year of fag-bashing and using the words “bitch” and “whore” in a sketch. Just my luck. I was always surprised that a chapter of ACT UP never showed up to protest — honestly.
If you stepped out of line presswise, you would hear about it, and if they didn’t appreciate what you said in the press, there would be Xerox copies of it for other people to read. It was the tactics of intimidation. There was so much pressure not to complain. If anybody got anti–fan mail or a disparaging note, it would be posted. I didn’t understand that. It was another tactic of breaking you. Lorne enjoys the house divided syndrome. I think he prefers the house divided.
I learned that I made the experience even worse than it should have been. I was defeated. I was weak. I drank too much. I will go with the Eleanor Roosevelt quote, “No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.” I gave my consent freely. And every time I waited for Lorne for five hours — luckily, I didn’t do it more than once or twice — but once I did it the first time, I gave my consent to feel inferior. I gave my consent to Marci Klein to feel inferior because I was intimidated by her. I gave