Live From New York - James H. Miller [295]
CHRISTINE ZANDER:
One week I asked to talk to him after the table read. And I think when you asked to talk to him, I think he was always worried you had a problem and you were going to quit or you were going to confront him. I don’t think he really likes confrontation. So after the table read, I went into the office and it was sort of tense, but then I sat down and I just said, “Well, I’m gonna miss next week’s table read because I have to have an amniocentesis.” And he said, “Oooh, I remember my first amnio,” and it was his sister’s. But he made it his own. And he was really wonderful about it. We talked for about twenty minutes about how everything would be fine.
It’s difficult when you’re away from it for a long time to try to remember what made you so crazy or what made you so frustrated, and I think you realize, or at least I did, that a lot of it was in your own head and you can’t completely blame him. It’s more the combination of people and talent — incredible talent, I think, when I was there, and live television.
ELLIOT WALD, Writer:
The only time I met him is when I did a piece on him for the Chicago Sun-Times in 1977. He was very charming. I don’t really claim to understand Lorne, but if you talk to enough people, you get a sense of Lorne and you realize that in his own way, Lorne was just as hard to work for as Ebersol — and in some ways harder. Lorne is more the smart, neurotic Jewish guy who knows exactly where the buttons on your keyboard are — because he has a similar keyboard himself. Ebersol, on the other hand, is more like a boss. If you cross him, he’ll just get mad. Lorne, from all indications, is much more like the diabolical version of yourself. He’s manipulative, and he knows exactly how to make people crazy. Someone once called him a psychological terrorist.
CONAN O’BRIEN:
Lorne is very aloof. He’s off in his own world. He has a standard joke if you’re a rookie writer and he doesn’t know you that well. He passed me in the hall once, and he said, “Still with the show?” Then he acted mildly surprised, as if to say, “I thought we got rid of you.” And that’s his little joke: “Still with the show?”
But I knew I was doing all right, because a few months later — it was late on a Tuesday night — Lorne came into my office. I was sitting at my desk, and he sat on the edge of it and started telling me about this great weekend he had just had in his home on Long Island. “I built a fire and I made some s’mores, and it was really nice, because it was very winterlike.” And I was sitting there and thinking, “I can’t believe this is happening. Is there someone else in the room? Is there some consequential person in the room? Because I’m certainly not.”
ANDY BRECKMAN:
You hear people on the White House staff talking about face time with the president, and that’s what goes on here. When Lorne would come into the office and sit for a few minutes, that was almost, you know, a pat on the back, even though there was, literally, no pat on the back. Just getting a few minutes of face time with him meant you were of some value to him.
JIMMY FALLON, Cast Member:
I talk to Lorne regularly about everything. He’s the master. He’s been through it all, man. He knows everything. I have to make appointments to see him, because I’ll talk to him for an hour if I can. I mean, it’s like, “All right, my next issue is this: I’m getting an apartment.” And he’ll say, “Well, I think you should.” Whatever it is, he’ll give me advice on it. He’s just really great. That’s the guy I go to for an answer. He doesn’t beat around the bush. He gives you an answer and he takes away all the stress.
JAMES SIGNORELLI, Director of Commercial Parodies:
I swear to God — and I’ve been around this guy for almost thirty years — Lorne has no interest in what you want to talk about. None. What Lorne thinks is, if you need him to help you solve it, it’s not worth solving. And you ultimately are going