Live From New York - James H. Miller [279]
I think if Lorne were to step down, the show would very quickly be canceled. I’m absolutely convinced of that — especially at this point. The moment he’s replaced, then there’s no argument against replacing “that guy.” And once that starts to happen, the network will pick that show to pieces. It will get worse and worse and worse, and they will never acknowledge that it was their meddling that made it worse. Besides, I can only imagine the kind of person he’d be replaced with. Believe me, they would not pick some bold young cutting-edge thinker who would startle everyone with his ideas. It would be someone who would make the show much more like the rest of the network.
JEFF ZUCKER, President, NBC Entertainment:
I’ve been watching the show since I was a little kid. What I remember the most is probably Gilda and Roseanne Roseannadanna.
Having been a producer of the Today show for almost ten years, I had a lot of respect for what Lorne does as a producer. And I think the biggest thing an executive can do in those kinds of roles is just support the producers and let their vision speak. There was nothing broken at Saturday Night Live. People are fond of saying certain years are better than other years, but at the end of the day, it’s all pretty good and pretty special.
I actually think that one of the biggest things I wanted to do when I got my job was address the fact that Lorne and this cast have been totally underutilized by NBC. I can’t speak to what happened in relationships before me, but obviously I had a relationship with Lorne from being here in New York, at the Today show, and having grown up in New York. I think that that has helped. It’s not an accident that we’ve had a pilot with Lorne each of the last two years, that Tracy Morgan is going to do a show for us, and that we have a development deal with Tina Fey. One of the things that I’m most proud of is that we’re tapping into this.
ROBERT WRIGHT:
The show has always been a magnet for criticism, but I would say honestly less so in the last number of years. I don’t think it’s because the show isn’t daring; I think it’s because there is so much material on television that offends groups one way or the other that they don’t have enough time in a day to write letters to us and the other two hundred shows that they’re unhappy about. Today it has to survive not on outrageousness but on extremely good performances and great writing, because in terms of the outrageous aspect — there’s just too many places you can go for that.
KEN AYMONG:
I love seeing new people start on this show. A couple years ago I started giving them tickets from their first show that they worked on. I always wish I had had that myself. It’s more important, though, for a writer, because that is what this show is; it’s a celebration of writing — enhanced by performers, obviously, and the director and Lorne and everybody else who works here. The biggest part of the show to me is the celebration of ideas. That’s what I love most about it.
And when you see a new writer start here, they come in with physical comedy in mind — clichés and that sort of thing. But there’s inherent talent there. And when I have the opportunity during the course of a season, I say, “I envy you so much. Because from this point on, you’re going to look at the world totally different. Now the world gets to service you. All you have to do is see it. And the whole world is going to look different to you now.”
I wish I had that gift — to observe. That’s the greatest gift I think a writer can have, is to actually observe the human condition, to actually put it down on paper and give an emotion to it.
ROBERT WRIGHT:
I have no idea