Live From New York: An Uncensored History of Saturday Night Live (88 page)

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 pissed. 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 fucking 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 fuckin’ time. And I finally got in there, and then he did his dinner reservations with his assistant 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. Hello.” 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
Saturday Night Live
. Dick 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 God, 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
anticipation. 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 buttonholed Lorne and started telling him what he was doing wrong. He was basically telling Lorne how to produce the show. And I was horribly embarrassed 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
Saturday Night Live
was — you say, “God 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 shit 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, bitch.” 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 analyze anybody. If you want an analysis 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 Saturday 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.