Live From New York - James H. Miller [57]
TOM SCHILLER:
When I started making films for the show, the third one I made was Don’t Look Back in Anger, the Belushi-in-the-cemetery one. It was based on the idea that I can look at people and I can “see” how they are going to look when they get old. Of course, I didn’t know John wasn’t going to get old, but I was intrigued with the idea. When he shot it, he did every line perfectly and went to every spot perfectly without even blocking it beforehand. It was shot at some cemetery in Brooklyn. It was creepy.
ROBERT KLEIN:
In a sketch about giant lobsters attacking New York, I played the guy who said, “Oh, the humanity!” Like the radio reporter from the Hindenburg fire. There was a very revealing line in there that was pretty awful when you think about it: “Oh, John Belushi is dead. We knew he’d die young, but not this young!”
Another time, in one sketch we were rehearsing, Belushi had the part of the father — miscasting, but it was just a sketch. And he just was sort of shaking and quick-tempered and impatient, and finally we were almost going to hit each other. And Aykroyd breaks it up and calms everything down quickly and says, “Oh, I’ll do the part.” It was like a terrible flare-up — a very bad memory — and Aykroyd, ever the mensch, stepped in and settled everything.
And it was nothing permanent with Belushi and me, but I do recall in subsequent weeks Belushi was off the show. I called it “getting docked,” like at camp or something, where you’re being punished. This is another of Lorne Michaels’s talents that I’ll have to give him, that he was able to juggle this stuff. Because there were drugs around. There were cocaine lines the length of a desk, you know. And most people could handle it, but a few people fell very badly through the cracks.
JANE CURTIN:
Lorne and I stopped speaking. It was during the second year. He wouldn’t answer my questions. I would say, “Why aren’t you doing something about John? I found him going through my purse. He set your loft on fire. His behavior is reprehensible. He’s not coming to rehearsals or if he does come, he comes three hours late. Do something!” And he didn’t. He would just sort of throw his hands in the air. Lorne doesn’t deal with issues. Lorne cannot confront an issue. So I thought, “Well, this is pointless, I’m not going to talk to him anymore.”
Gilda became our go-between. When Lorne wanted me to do something, he would call Gilda and say, “Would you ask Jane if she would do this?” And Gilda would come up to me and say, “Lorne was wondering if you would mind doing this?” And I’d say, “No, that would be fine.” This made life so much easier. We would say hello, but beyond that, there was nothing I needed from Lorne. I had “Update,” so I didn’t need anything. I didn’t need a father. I had a husband who loved me, and a great little dog. Life was good.
KATE JACKSON, Host:
I got a phone call from Bob Woodward when he was doing his book Wired, and he wanted to talk to me because he had heard that the show I had hosted was John’s worst in terms of drug abuse. I didn’t know that, because I never saw anybody do anything, so I didn’t talk to Woodward. I heard later that paramedics had been called over to the studio and were standing by for John all through the show.
But John didn’t miss the show. He was perspiring a little bit. But he never, never went way off on a wrong tangent, never went off the cards, or never messed anything up that made it hard for me to get back on track. He did what he was supposed to do.
John called me afterwards. For weeks he would call me on Thursday afternoons just to say hello and to thank me for saving his life. “Wow,” he’d say. “Katie, man, you really saved my life, wow, and thank you.” And I frankly didn’t know what he was talking about. I didn’t know why he was calling; he was just so sweet, you know. Danny had told me, “John is a bad boy, but a good man.”
NORMAN LEAR, Host:
I loved in John and