Live From New York Part 34

ANDY BRECKMAN:.

Some executives at Paramount have asked me - because they have that big deal with Lorne where the overhead is quite high - if I know why cast members, once they graduate from SNL, don't want to work with Lorne. I'm sure Paramount's idea when they signed Lorne was that he would be able to deliver the Adam Sandlers of the world and be able to feed them that talent, and he hasn't delivered it. I really don't know the answer.

MIKE MYERS, Cast Member: As far as not having Lorne produce the Austin Powers films, Austin Powers came out of tremendous grief at the loss of my father; it was an homage to my father and all the fun sort of British culture that my father forced all of us, me and my brothers, to watch. I wrote it, I didn't think anybody would make it, I didn't think necessarily it was something Lorne would want to do. There was never a conscious effort not to work with Lorne. I just met different producers out in L.A. because we were living there, and Lorne was in New York. It just happens to be that some people who showed interest in it in its very nascent form are the people I produced it with. It was never a conscious effort to break away from Lorne. I have seen Lorne socially thousands of times. I consider him one of my friends, and certainly one of my teachers. I just met somebody different in L.A. And I actually didn't think necessarily that Austin was Lorne's cup of tea.

I am happy to go on record that the character of Dr. Evil in the Austin Powers films has really very little to do with Lorne Michaels. It has more to do with a composite of all the bad guys in the James Bond films and the Matt Helm films and In Like Flint films. I happen to have a Canadian accent, as does Lorne. It's some vocal quirk which we actually share, being, you know, two guys from Toronto. But for the most part, it really isn't Lorne. It wasn't enough Lorne when I made the first one that I felt it necessary to say anything to him about it in advance. Having said that, Dr. Evil is my favorite character that I've ever done. The only similarity to Lorne is vocally. It's not anything to do with Lorne's character. If anything, he should be honored by it. I would be happy to state very clearly that I do not feel Lorne Michaels is evil. That's a for-the-record type statement.

I have nothing but the utmost respect for Lorne Michaels. He's a Canadian hero to me, to be honest with you. I am in awe of him. I did a project on him in grade eight - or the eighth grade, and I would have said "proe-ject." I was shaking when I met him, and shaking with pride that he's a Canadian. I was never disappointed with how incredibly smart he is. There isn't a day that I don't quote Lorne about some aspect of trying to make sense of show business. It's a situation for which there is no glossary of terms, but Lorne has created a glossary of terms, and I've used it frequently. He's one of the few bosses I've ever worked for who is funnier than I am.

TERRY TURNER, Writer: We didn't have a whole lot of contact with Lorne early on. He would sort of go through the halls on, I guess it was Tuesday night, and wander through and say, "What are you writing, what are you doing?" He was a hard man to reach sometimes. But the signals would be out there. You just had to interpret like he was speaking a foreign language. Later on, Lorne really became a mentor for Bonnie and me. I don't know how it happened or where it began. Then at some point, you know, you're under somebody's wing for so long it never rains on you, but the sun doesn't shine on you either. So you realize that you have to get out from under the wing and do it yourself, see if you can do it.

LILY TARTIKOFF:.

Seeing Lorne in L.A. is odd. If you want to see Lorne you should see him in New York.

BERNIE BRILLSTEIN:.

No one remembers that Lorne was a great writer, he's a great editor, and his comedy mind is fantastic. But he's two different guys - he's Gatsby and he's Lorne the Canadian. He's two different people. He loves that New York life. In fact, he loves New York more than I do, and I was born there.

DANA CARVEY:.

Lorne loves New York because, as he would say, "you've got finance, you've got the theater, and you've got broadcast networks. It's not this sort of one-trick pony."

DAN AYKROYD:.

I did get mad once and put a hole through a wall in Lorne's office. I punched a hole in it because I was so mad at the way he would give us last-minute changes before air. We would have to run down and give them to the cue card guys, and they would be going crazy and saying, "Are you kidding?! You want us to get this on?!" And I just said, at a certain point, we have got to decide what's in and what's out within each sketch - what are the changes and they've got to be done in time, so that you can get them to cards and we aren't standing there with them shuffling cards in front of us on the air. Because everything is read on that show. You can't memorize; it's happening too fast. So I had that one episode when I was mad at him, but I never had any other tense moments with Lorne. And that went away fast.

AL FRANKEN:.

After Danny put his fist through the wall, Lorne came in and did his "I'm very disappointed" thing. That's what I remember more than anything else about the incident. Lorne's reaction was of "disappointment" - like a father being disappointed - instead of actual anger. I remember watching that and thinking, "That's a smart way to handle this."

CONAN O'BRIEN: I remember once he was really mad about a dress that had gone really badly. And we were all packed into that little room afterwards. And he's really p.i.s.sed. Because this dress didn't go well and a lot of things went wrong. And he's like doing that Lorne thing that he can do sometimes - heavy, heavy sarcasm. Because Lorne will not usually confront you directly. He would just say things like, "Oh, I loved how it had no ending," or "It was brilliant how it just sort of dribbled off." And he's trying to talk about the lousy dress, and I think Bob Odenkirk, who was very junior at that point, whispered to somebody something, and Lorne just went, "Odenkirk, you speak again, I'll break your f.u.c.king legs." And it was like the first time I had seen him actually swinging into action and actually beating someone up. It really made me laugh.

KATE JACKSON, Host: I remember when I was hosting, somebody came in and said something to Lorne about John Belushi being in bad shape, and Lorne said, "We're on live at eleven-thirty. He's not allowed to die until after the show."

ANDREW SMITH, Writer: I used to call Lorne every year to see if he had a spot open, until the last time I had a meeting with him. He'd kept me waiting for about an hour and a half or more - a long f.u.c.kin' time. And I finally got in there, and then he did his dinner reservations with his a.s.sistant during our meeting. Where was dinner going to be, what time was it going to be, that sort of thing. And then that was the end of the meeting. To make matters worse, Lorne still has to be introduced to me every time I meet him. Every time I see him, somebody will have to say, "Lorne, you know Andrew Smith, don't you?" "Oh, yes, yes. h.e.l.lo." I think he's become a full British subject now in his mind, hasn't he?

BOB TISCHLER:.

I have been told so many stories as to who came up with the idea for Sat.u.r.day Night Live. d.i.c.k always tried to claim a certain amount of credit, and so does Lorne. I don't know exactly what went on. I can be very critical of the way Lorne works and the way he deals with people and who he is, but the fact remains he is the guy who did put the show together. One of my criticisms is the way he manipulates people, but he did manipulate people to put that show together and to do a good show.

NORMAN LEAR, Host: I have a routine that I've done with my daughter Kate since she was four years old. It's an ancient burlesque kind of sketch. I ask her to help me tell a joke and she tries very hard and messes up and I jump on her for it and she begs for another chance. She messes up in a different way and I jump on her. And it builds and I get angrier and angrier at this child. And it was always terribly funny. I had a wonderful and still have a wonderful relationship with Lorne, and I told him I'd love to do this and he saw it and he said, "Oh G.o.d, that's great. We'll do it." But we're now talking the live show. Lorne had somebody making cartoons, I don't remember who it was, and halfway through this live show, I'm about to come out and Lorne says, "I want to run the cartoon" and to cut the sketch with my daughter. So pretty soon I'm out there introducing Boz Scaggs, my music act, and I'm looking at my daughter, who's sitting with her mother and her sister in such antic.i.p.ation. And when it comes time to go to the cartoon, I instead start the thing with Kate, and I bring her up onstage, and we do the routine - which played very well, very well. And Lorne never said a word to me, but I knew he was furious, and he had every right to be. But it was either my daughter or his wrath. And I chose my daughter. In a show business sense, it was not the thing to do. I'm guilty. But Lorne never said anything to me about it. He also never asked me back.

ANNE BEATTS:.

I had been out to dinner with my father, and I of course had to go back to work. My father was kind of drunk and against my will insisted on coming back with me to the office. In the hall, he b.u.t.tonholed Lorne and started telling him what he was doing wrong. He was basically telling Lorne how to produce the show. And I was horribly embarra.s.sed and mortified by this. I remember Lorne said to me, "He's not you. Remember, he's not you." I thought that was very kind.

FRED SILVERMAN, NBC President: Lorne and I didn't go out to dinner every night. I think he had a different relationship with Herb Schlosser than he did with me. Maybe he needed more tender loving care at that point in time than I had given him. It's one of those things where you really attack your problem areas. If something is working - like Sat.u.r.day Night Live was - you say, "G.o.d bless you," and you just let them alone. I think Lorne mistook that for a lack of love, which really wasn't the case. It wasn't an intentional slight on my part. There were just major fires all over the network. So I think that was part of it. He never felt he had that daily support and tender loving care.

MIKE SHOEMAKER, Coproducer: No one takes more s.h.i.t on television than Lorne, and most of the stuff that's written doesn't make it to air because people are not that interested in seeing it. But I guarantee you, every week he's at the read-through, there's something that punctures Lorne's status, like he's getting a pedicure or something.

There's a running thing that we do where Tracy Morgan says to Lorne, "Go get me a soda, b.i.t.c.h." Smigel started it all, but the reason Lorne doesn't stop those things isn't because he's worried about the press. He's worried about seeming thin-skinned.

BUCK HENRY, Host: I wish he'd make better movies, but then I wish I'd make better movies. So that's no big deal. It wasn't a mistake for him to come back to the show, because it's what he has done the best.

AL FRANKEN:.

I was actually thinking of giving Lorne a scare and telling him that my daughter is on the Lampoon and her stuff is really good and she would love to come to SNL. And then he would feel like he would have to hire her.

MOLLY SHANNON:.

Lorne's a deep thinker. He can a.n.a.lyze anybody. If you want an a.n.a.lysis of somebody, go to him. He's the best. He'll be like, "Well, he's duh duh duh duh duh." He can sum somebody up in like thirty seconds. He's very quick and a very deep thinker and he's very loyal, loyal to a fault. So many of the same people who've worked there for years, these families he's supported, they're still there. The loyalty is phenomenal. He's very loyal. Just rock-solid loyalty like I'd never seen before.

DON OHLMEYER, NBC Executive: The show has had its great seasons; it's had its fabulous seasons; it's had its down seasons. And a lot of times when the show's had troubles, it was because Lorne was so loyal to his guys.

WARREN LITTLEFIELD, NBC Executive: I think if you put Don under sodium pentothal you would find him saying he was very fond of Lorne. But Don probably considered himself a better producer than Lorne. I think Don was frustrated by Lorne's methods and wanted to exert control over Lorne in ways that Lorne didn't want to be controlled. It was a battle of wills and egos, with Don saying, legitimately, "Hey, if we want to keep this thing going, we're going to have to bring this under some fiscal control, because otherwise we don't know how to justify to finance and NBC Inc. what's going on." And so we took on a parental role to Lorne.

DAVE WILSON, Director: A long time ago, a reporter was interviewing the renowned composer Jerome Kern. The reporter asked Kern what he felt was Irving Berlin's place in American music. Kern answered that Irving Berlin was American music. And that's the way I feel about Lorne Michaels. Lorne Michaels is Sat.u.r.day Night Live. He made it a legendary hit. And then he kept reinventing it to reflect that young adult audience's tastes in topical comedy and in popular music.

CHRIS ROCK:.

I've never been broke a day since I met Lorne Michaels. When I met Lorne Michaels I lived in a little studio apartment, my family lived in the ghetto for the most part. I met Lorne Michaels, and me and my family have been more than comfortable ever since.

BERNIE BRILLSTEIN:.

My dad died in New York and the funeral service was ten-thirty in the morning. The last person I think that's going to be there at ten-thirty in the morning is Lorne. But he was the first one. That's Lorne. His depth of feeling, his depth of being hurt, is really tremendous. And so is his depth for enjoyment. He's really the most unique guy I've met with his loyalty. We've been together thirty-some years, and he was romanced by the best of them. But he's never left me.

DAN AYKROYD:.

Clearly he enjoys what he's doing. He presides over an inst.i.tution now, and I see him there 'til he's eighty years old if he wants to be.

TIM MEADOWS, Cast Member: I walked around the corner once just as Lorne's children were freeing themselves from their nanny's clutches. I saw him get down on his knees and they ran to him and piled all over him, and I thought, "Man, you've got it goin' on, brother. You got this thing working."

JULIA SWEENEY:.

He's had so many years of practice being Lorne Michaels, he puts across just the impression he wants to put across.

BILLY CRYSTAL, Cast Member: We had one really nice moment together after all this time at the twenty-fifth-anniversary show, where I came out as Fernando. I had a great four or five minutes, great to be back in the character again, it really was a very strong thing. But Lorne walked me to the mark backstage and met me back there. And he was very warm with me. And that was very nice.

TOM HANKS:.

Lorne invented this thing. It's hard to imagine now the place that Ed Sullivan held in the esteem of the country and the medium of television because he was on every Sunday night. But it was a substantial thing to go on the Ed Sullivan Show - just to get the shot in the first place. And then to be called over and shake hands with Ed and maybe even chat with Ed before you went off. When you did Sullivan, it was literally a watermark for anybody's career. And if you did well on Sullivan, it guaranteed you some spot in the firmament. You could say the same thing about the Johnny Carson show. And I think you could say, even though he's not the actual host but he is the G.o.dfather of the show, I think you could say the same about Lorne. He is this very particular sort of show business maven that only exists in regularly scheduled television. It doesn't exist in movies. Lorne's produced movies, but other than getting them made, I don't think you could say he's had a resounding influence as a movie producer. But in the medium of TV, where you do a show week after week, Lorne has maintained this level of pacemaking influence that has not altered over the years. Sat.u.r.day Night Live has remained socially relevant literally because of him.

RICK LUDWIN, NBC Vice President for Late Night: I want to leave before Lorne does. I would rather not have the job of trying to find someone to replace him. I'm definitely timing my exit to precede his. I'm just making sure that I go before he does.

MARILYN SUZANNE MILLER:.

I was in Los Angeles writing a novel and found something in my breast the size of a lemon. So I got on a plane an hour later and came back to New York. Within twenty-four hours I knew I had breast cancer. Mine was advanced breast cancer, which is to say I didn't have metastatic breast cancer, but I did have a huge tumor with many nodes, so I had experimental chemo. I told my manager, "I don't want to go back to L.A. I'm too scared." So I was going to stay in New York and have this chemo and radiation. And I was just in shock. At that point I didn't know if I was going to live or die. It was very aggressive cancer.

Lorne had of course been on the phone with me. Everybody from the original show called - the family thing again. Our ties are very emotional. Then one day Lorne called me up. He knew I wanted to be in New York for the treatments and that I had left a job in L.A. And he said, "How'd you like to come back to the show?" And I thought, "Yeah! Love to!" So in the spring I went back. Back home - to Sat.u.r.day Night Live.

ALAN ZWEIBEL:.

I'd like for G.o.d to give me back the time that I invested in trying to figure Lorne out. I would like to have those hours and weeks and months back. I guess it's like someone trying to figure out their parents. There was a real need for validation from him, and now that I've been away from it for so long, when I do see Lorne, there's still that thing where you want him to know that you're doing okay, you want him to be proud. You're like, "Hey, I had a part in this." So there were ill feelings at one time, but they were born out of a different situation.

When most of us got there in '75 and started the show, Lorne's predictions started coming true, and we said, "This guy's a prophet, you know, look at this, everything he's predicting is happening. I'll hitch my wagon to his horse." And then years later, I went to the twenty-fifth-anniversary show. It's funny, because it didn't feel like twenty-five years, but as you looked around and you added up stuff here and there - well, yeah, I guess that does equal twenty-five years. I was sitting there looking around at the people who were there and coming onstage. I was thinking, look who came through here, look at what it gave birth to, and look at how much money there is in this room right now.

And I thought, "Look what Lorne did. Look at what he's done!"

ANNE BEATTS:.

Lorne did have a note from Gilda on his bulletin board that said, "Lorne, I'm happy. Love, Gilda." But enough about Lorne. What about me?

ALSO BY TOM SHALES.

On the Air.

Legends: Remembering America's Greatest Stars.

ALSO BY JAMES ANDREW MILLER.

Running in Place: Inside the Senate.

SNL Cast Lists.

SEASON BY SEASON.

197576 Dan Aykroyd John Belushi Chevy Chase Jane Curtin Garrett Morris Laraine Newman Gilda Radner 197677 Dan Aykroyd John Belushi Chevy Chase Jane Curtin Garrett Morris Bill Murray Laraine Newman Gilda Radner 197778 Dan Aykroyd John Belushi Jane Curtin Garrett Morris Bill Murray Laraine Newman Gilda Radner 197879 Dan Aykroyd John Belushi Jane Curtin Garrett Morris Bill Murray Laraine Newman Gilda Radner 197980 Jane Curtin Garrett Morris Bill Murray Laraine Newman Gilda Radner Harry Shearer 198081 Denny Dillon Gilbert Gottfried Gail Matthius Eddie Murphy Joe Piscopo Ann Risley Charles Rocket 198182 Denny Dillon Brian Doyle-Murray Robin Duke Christine Ebersole Mary Gross Tim Kazurinsky Eddie Murphy Joe Piscopo Tony Rosato 198283 Robin Duke Mary Gross Brad Hall Tim Kazurinsky Gary Kroeger Julia Louis-Dreyfus Eddie Murphy Joe Piscopo 198384 Jim Belushi Robin Duke Mary Gross Brad Hall Tim Kazurinsky Gary Kroeger Julia Louis-Dreyfus Eddie Murphy Joe Piscopo 198485 Jim Belushi Billy Crystal Mary Gross Christopher Guest Rich Hall Gary Kroeger Julia Louis-Dreyfus Harry Shearer Martin Short Pamela Stephenson 198586 Joan Cusack Robert Downey Jr.

Nora Dunn Anthony Michael Hall Jon Lovitz Terry Sweeney Randy Quaid Danitra Vance 198687 Dana Carvey Nora Dunn Phil Hartman Jan Hooks Victoria Jackson Jon Lovitz Dennis Miller Kevin Nealon 198788 Dana Carvey Nora Dunn Phil Hartman Jan Hooks Victoria Jackson Jon Lovitz Dennis Miller Kevin Nealon 198889 Dana Carvey Nora Dunn Phil Hartman Jan Hooks Victoria Jackson Jon Lovitz Dennis Miller Kevin Nealon Featuring A. Whitney Brown Al Franken Mike Myers Ben Stiller 198990 Dana Carvey Nora Dunn Phil Hartman Jan Hooks Victoria Jackson Jon Lovitz Dennis Miller Mike Myers Kevin Nealon Featuring A. Whitney Brown Al Franken Adam Sandler Rob Schneider David Spade 199091 Dana Carvey Phil Hartman Jan Hooks Victoria Jackson Dennis Miller Mike Myers Kevin Nealon With Chris Farley Tim Meadows Chris Rock Julia Sweeney Featuring A. Whitney Brown Al Franken Adam Sandler Rob Schneider David Spade 199192 Dana Carvey Chris Farley Phil Hartman Victoria Jackson Mike Myers Kevin Nealon Chris Rock Julia Sweeney With Ellen Cleghorne Siobhan Fallon Tim Meadows Adam Sandler Rob Schneider David Spade Featuring Beth Cahill Al Franken Melanie Hutsell Robert Smigel 199293 Dana Carvey Chris Farley Phil Hartman Mike Myers Kevin Nealon Chris Rock Rob Schneider Julia Sweeney With Al Franken Robert Smigel Featuring Ellen Cleghorne Melanie Hutsell Tim Meadows Adam Sandler David Spade 199394 Ellen Cleghorne Chris Farley Phil Hartman Melanie Hutsell Michael McKean Tim Meadows Mike Myers Kevin Nealon Adam Sandler Rob Schneider David Spade Julia Sweeney Featuring Al Franken Norm Macdonald Jay Mohr Sarah Silverman 199495 Morwenna Banks Ellen Cleghorne Chris Elliott Chris Farley Janeane Garofalo Norm Macdonald Michael McKean Mark McKinney Tim Meadows Mike Myers Kevin Nealon Adam Sandler David Spade Featuring Al Franken Laura Kightlinger Jay Mohr Molly Shannon 199596 Jim Breuer Will Ferrell Darrell Hammond David Koechner Norm Macdonald Mark McKinney Tim Meadows Cheri Oteri Molly Shannon David Spade Nancy Walls Featuring Chris Kattan Colin Quinn Fred Wolf 199697 Jim Breuer Will Ferrell Ana Gasteyer Darrell Hammond Chris Kattan Norm Macdonald Mark McKinney Tim Meadows Tracy Morgan Cheri Oteri Molly Shannon Featuring Colin Quinn Fred Wolf 199798 Jim Breuer Will Ferrell Ana Gasteyer Darrell Hammond Chris Kattan Norm Macdonald Tim Meadows Tracy Morgan Cheri Oteri Colin Quinn Molly Shannon 199899 Will Ferrell Ana Gasteyer Darrell Hammond Chris Kattan Tim Meadows Tracy Morgan Cheri Oteri Colin Quinn Molly Shannon Featuring Jimmy Fallon Chris Parnell Horatio Sanz 19992000 Jimmy Fallon Will Ferrell Ana Gasteyer Darrell Hammond Chris Kattan Tim Meadows Tracy Morgan Cheri Oteri Chris Parnell Colin Quinn Horatio Sanz Molly Shannon Featuring Rachel Dratch Maya Rudolph 200001 Jimmy Fallon Will Ferrell Ana Gasteyer Darrell Hammond Chris Kattan Tracy Morgan Chris Parnell Horatio Sanz Molly Shannon Featuring Rachel Dratch Tina Fey Jerry Minor Maya Rudolph 200102 Rachel Dratch Jimmy Fallon Will Ferrell Tina Fey Ana Gasteyer Darrell Hammond Chris Kattan Tracy Morgan Chris Parnell Amy Poehler Maya Rudolph Horatio Sanz Featuring Dean Edwards Seth Meyers Jeff Richards 200203 Rachel Dratch Jimmy Fallon Tina Fey Darrell Hammond Chris Kattan Tracy Morgan Chris Parnell Amy Poehler Maya Rudolph Horatio Sanz Featuring Fred Armisen Dean Edwards Will Forte Seth Meyers Jeff Richards About the Authors Tom Shales is the Pulitzer Prizewinning television critic of the Washington Postand a columnist for Electronic Media. His books include On the Air! and Legends, and he has written for Esquire, Life, Playboy, Interview, and other magazines. He received his bachelor's degree from American University in 1973.

James Andrew Miller is the author of Running in Place: Inside the Senate and has written for the Washington Post, the New York Times, Life, Newsweek, and other publications, in addition to numerous projects for television and movies. He received his B.A. from Occidental College, his M.Litt. from Oxford University, and his M.B.A. from Harvard University.