Live From New York - James H. Miller [212]
FRED WOLF:
Saturday Night Live is the rock and roll of comedy. All comedians envy rock and rollers, and the show has that mystique about it. I’ve written on a lot of TV shows and never really came close to seeing anything like it. There’s something about that show that’s phenomenal.
I don’t know of anyone who was on Saturday Night Live as a performer who clicked — I’m talking about the Lorne Michaels years — and then years later didn’t click in another capacity as a performer. If you’ve been there five years and you’re not able to do a movie or star in your own TV show, then I think you probably failed ultimately in your career.
LORNE MICHAELS:
Very often the least talented people are the very first to declare undying loyalty. Because the other people have more choices. To me it isn’t that people shouldn’t leave or that it’s a betrayal to leave, because I think people have an obligation to their own talent and to express it. The more artistic they are, generally the more restless they are anyway.
When people come up to me at the party at the end of their first year and say, “I can’t tell you how much I appreciate this, and I’m so grateful for this opportunity,” I always go, “Well, let’s talk about this in year six, because that’s when it will actually matter. Because now all the power is on my side and you have no power.” The test of character is how people behave when they’re successful and they have more power. Some people handle it really well.
On Saturday Night Live, guest and host are one and the same. Hundreds of celebrities, not all of them from show business, some more notorious than famous, have filled that double role. Some ingratiated themselves with the SNL regulars, and vice versa, while others proved uncomfortable, antagonistic, and even, in one or two cases, sexually predatory.
TIM MEADOWS:
The biggest problem with Steven Seagal was that he would complain about jokes that he didn’t get, so it was like — you can’t explain something to somebody in German if they don’t speak German. He just wasn’t funny and he was very critical of the cast and the writing staff. He didn’t realize that you can’t tell somebody they’re stupid on Wednesday and expect them to continue writing for you on Saturday.
DAVID SPADE:
He didn’t want to go along with what the plan was that week, and as a result, I think that was the first week that I heard talk about replacing the host and just doing a cast show.
JULIA SWEENEY:
When we pitched our ideas for Seagal at our Monday meeting, he gave us some of his own sketch ideas. And some of his sketch ideas were so heinous, but so hilariously awful, it was like we were on Candid Camera.
He had this idea that he’s a therapist and he wanted Victoria Jackson to be his patient who’s just been raped. And the therapist says, “You’re going to have to come to me twice a week for like three years,” because, he said, “that’s how therapists fucking are. They’re just trying to get your money.” And then he says that the psychiatrist tries to have sex with her.
TIM MEADOWS:
I love Chevy Chase. I do. He rubbed some people the wrong way, but when he was here, it was like just watching a car accident over and over again just watching him deal with people. Because he didn’t care about what he said. He has no qualm about telling you you’re an idiot, but not just saying it but showing you, you know, treating people really bad and being a real smart-ass. But I actually like him, though. He didn’t call me an idiot, he was nice to me.
CHRIS ELLIOTT:
I remember having dinner with John Travolta and Lorne. He talked to Lorne about Saturday Night Live and how it had influenced him and how he