Live From New York - James H. Miller [53]
“Update” was my anchor. Everything else was gravy. The Nerds — I loved those sketches. I loved working with Buck and Billy and Gilda, and we always laughed, because they were just so dumb. And sometimes things like the Widettes, because they would just make you hysterical. I loved the epics and the costume dramas, and some of the talk shows that we did were just yummy. There were a lot of other things, but the fact that I had “Update” and didn’t have to plead for material kept me sane. I had the luxury of being able to leave and come in when I needed to. I didn’t hang around. And so I approached it from a totally different point of view than I think anybody else.
ROSIE SHUSTER, Writer:
Those first five years, only Jane amongst the cast really was able to have a total personal life. I think a few of the guys maybe could have someone back home. Of the girls, you lived and slept and breathed the show. You stayed there. I remember Danny and I, after sleeping over at the office, would walk each other like dogs around 30 Rock just to get a little fresh air. In those first years it was just pure gonzo, total commitment. There was this phenomenon that was exploding and we all threw ourselves into it 200 percent.
The whole thing sort of marked the beginning of comics being thought of the way rock stars had been. The rock stars had that real pulsing energy and immediacy, and this particular show, because of its live, New York danger vibe, gave you that same kind of raw immediacy. It was just raggedy-ass a lot of times.
PAUL SIMON, Host:
I don’t think they necessarily changed for the worse with that metamorphosis into success. They became more confident. And they were still young so that they hadn’t burned out and weren’t cynical yet. They were, you know, excited. Maybe they had more offers and distraction; that might have been a negative, I don’t know. But they weren’t jaded. They were just in the first, early years of great success. And when you look back on a career, the first year isn’t the beginning; the first couple of years are the beginning. Three, four, five years of success are — if a career spans twenty-five or thirty years — the early days.
BILL MURRAY, Cast Member:
I remember my very first show. I had a sketch that was a little tricky to do, a telephone sketch. They were making me up for the first time and they were trying to make me look old and — well, you don’t feel really comfortable the first time they make you look old. I was twenty-five or twenty-six, and they’re trying to make you look like you’re seventy-five, and it plays a little on your confidence. There was like a committee of people going, “Maybe if you put some gray in his temples,” and you’re thinking, “Oh my God, we’re going to be in trouble out here.” But that’s one that I sort of pulled together on the air. I read it well the first time in the read-through, but you’re not thinking about what it looks like, and even in rehearsals it’s like you’re still Bill, you know. My confidence sort of dropped, because I thought, “This isn’t really helping me.”
So I had to do it two times that day, the run-through and the dress rehearsal in that makeup, then for the air there was still that “put some gray in his temples” business, and at a certain point about forty seconds before I had to do it, I just said, “That’s enough. Stop.” And I just walked away and it was just on me to make it work. So I made that one work. That was pretty successful.
I did three shows and they were on a look-see basis. I think they hired me for three shows. And I remember just walking out onto the street after the first show and Lorne said, “I guess you’re going to be moving to New York.” And it felt great, you know. It felt really good. And so I thought, “This is great, I did it.