LORNE MICHAELS (Part 2)
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Yes, I have actually stayed at Airbnbs from time to time. And truth be told, I do really like them. I'm being totally honest right now that I've had great experiences with them. Yeah. I mean, you can have your look at you go get your own place, get your own pool, your own living room. You're not going to walk in an elevator. You're not going to see people when you're walking around in your undergarments. Yeah.

Yes. And if you don't understand what we're talking about, you should go online. What we're saying is you have a house with a kitchen and a bathroom and it's just for you, tailored for you. You liked your Airbnb over a hotel. Yes. And I do think I've had relatives stay nearby and sometimes it's very nice for them to do an Airbnb and have a little house and they're not underfoot. The last thing you want is your house guest to say, excuse me, um,

Where would I find a towel? That's a toughie when it's because they're naked. Well, it's like the 1800 time you say on the towel rack. Yeah. Thank you. I was going to look there. People don't even think hotels sometimes just go, hey, I'll go there. I'll get an Airbnb. So you won't regret it.

Here's a question for you, because I have a few of my own personal thing, but in the studio with a sketch, what were the ones that just killed the hardest or made you laugh the hardest? And it's probably dozens of them, but I have one in mind that I was in that I didn't write, but it went to a level of laughter and involved an animal. Yeah.

Massive Head Wound Harry. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Because an animal, you know. A dog. That was Bedlam. Also the headline of it, Massive Head Wound Harry. You've got to go, that's an odd sitcom. You know, I thought that was Jack Handy because it had such an odd title, but I think it was Schneider's idea. I think it was Schneider and probably a few other people helped, but I think Rob. Maybe they gang banged it. Franken too. But that was just one of those things that they said between Dress and Air that

Like Robert asked the handler of the dog, well, what would make him really voracious? Well, so they didn't feed him. He was hungry and then put more stuff on my prosthetic head. So the dog went crazy. And because I was trained by you, I didn't want to be about the prosthesis coming off. So I went like that and just held it. But it was such a long battle between me and the dog. And you kept in it. Yeah. I stayed in. I didn't want it to be about that. And you didn't milk it. No. And I think that's the discipline of it.

You know, you transcended. You're still playing. Yeah, you don't want it when it's killing that hard. It was like Pepper Boy with Sandler. And that was killing so hard on air. It just came out. And Sandler and I were just in a rhythm together. And then Farley had one line. And on the dress show, it's like, whoa, Pepper Boy. So then the air show. And of course, we're coming around the leg of Pepper or whatever. And Farley's like, whoa, Farley.

Thank you, purple boy. But ten times louder than I just said it. Sandler turns purple, is turning away from the camera to me, and I whisper, I keep the Italian accent, and I go, don't break.

Oh, yeah. And he didn't break because I thought the sketch was going so good that I didn't want it to. Yeah, yeah, yeah. If it's not going good, okay, you can break, but not if it's good. But also a sketch like Canteen Boy with Alec and then Sadler sleeping back. Yeah, I wouldn't get too far these days. Oh, my God. Even back then it was resistance. Oh, yeah, totally. So when you get – obviously it gets –

It's probably still exciting. Would you ever want to stop? Or if Dane and I can't take over, what do we do? I think there's times when it's so frustrating and so whatever that you think. But, you know, when that – the warm-up is over, you know, and it's just you're hearing those last two songs, just the band, and you know those songs because they don't change much. And then you start to realize –

you're kind of excited. And that's never changed for me. No, I don't. I think you just, you're like anyone who's driven, you take the slings and arrows. But I didn't really understand what you did until I guest hosted and was just kind of, you hang out with you kind of more. And even if you're going out to dinner or whatever, you're constantly producing and constantly thinking and suggesting and you're really bleeding over every show emotionally. So how do you decompress? I mean, are you...

Well, I think it's different when you have kids. Because that they take the- You go to the party, you come back and then somebody's jumping on your chest and you can still taste the beer. But they're the priority and you're not. And you get through that period. I think for me, and particularly in the pandemic and for the whole of the 16 election and afterwards, you sort of went, oh, people are counting on us.

talking about it and being there. And that was like a huge thing. And when we did those at-home shows in the pandemic, you know, the idea that... And it always... It's just the DNA of the show. We show up. So you sort of feel you with 9-11 or whatever that you have to... And, you know, when Sandy Hook happened, you know, and McCartney was on the show and Marty Short. And it happened on the Friday of...

That's the toughest. And I go, we don't have to do that. I don't know why we have to do that. And then Friday night, you can't not do it. You can't somehow figure it out. And...

There was a choir, a boys' choir. Oh, yes. That was on for Wonderful Christmas Time with McCarty. I remember that sketch. Yeah. Yes, that was hysterical. And so Marty showed it. Marty Short. You can't sing. Is this where Paul talked about this? Yeah. Yeah. And we were...

It also happened to be the Friday night that they were shooting the last scene of 30 Rock. Alec on a boat down South Street Seaport. And I promised Tina and Robert and Alec that I'd be there for that. So I'm driving down the West Side Highway now and I'm still trying to figure out what I'm going to do because we don't have an opening. And Paul had said, McCartney had said,

I can sing, but I thought, it's kids. You just can't do any show business. Do you know what I mean? You could do Let It Be, whatever, but it would be somehow wrong. And I called Lindsay and said, will you call the choir master and see if he's got a chart on Silent Night? And she came back. She said, they do. And they have the choir. Yeah. So it became like...

We're going to just do that. I knew Phil Hobbs where he put the candles. The great lighting designer. Yeah. And it was like... So they do it and then they say live from New York. And it did not work at Dress. And I went... Yeah, boy. Okay. Now this is where you have to... And then Marty told me the story because he was watching me. And he said...

You were so puzzling with it while you were giving notes. Like, what is it? And then dipped black. Just dipped the black. That ends. And then the kids being happy and saying live from New York was completely understandable and forgivable. You couldn't bleed the one into the other. And so it was like, oh. And it worked. And you kind of go, you don't know. But you're like, when you're mixing tragedy in, you need jokes. But also...

It just is, you're supposed to do it. And finding that line, you know. If you're driving right now, take a look around. See all those cars? You can find them on AutoTrader because they have the largest selection of new cars, used cars, electric cars, even flying cars.

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Find it on auto trader. See it. Find it. Auto trader. Paul McCartney. I thank you for introducing us. No, he's, you know, I think he doesn't get credit for being a rocker. Do you know what I mean? I think the cliche was that John was, and he was, you know, but half the rock, you know, Jojo, that's Paul. Yeah. Helter skelter. Yeah. Helter skelter. Yeah. But, um,

I think that he suffers from a good problem in a way, too many great songs. Yeah. People hear Let It Be and Hey Jude. They don't hear Here, There, and Everywhere. Yeah. And She's Leaving Home. He has so many melodies that you can't even remind people. Yeah, and when people criticize him because I, you know...

You're very good friends. I go, no, he's Mozart. Yeah, unbelievable. Just stop it. He writes great melodies. That's who he is. And someday you'll get a perspective on it, but it's really remarkable. And I saw his last concert at the Meadowlands. And what was interesting, it was like three hours. Yeah. And he...

You know, I mean, things you thought you would see for sure weren't in the show. It was really well thought out and fresh and brilliant. And about 10, 15 minutes before it ended, it started to rain. And this is at, you know, the Meadowlands. No one moved.

You know, everybody just sat there. Sort of a once in a lifetime. And it was the last time he was going to perform, in America anyway. And it was just magical. And for me, it was, I mean, love me do is I'm a freshman. Yes. Do you know what I mean? So that's the point of entry. And I think it's all, you know, in the Stones I saw in London this summer too, just phenomenal. Love them. And it's just that thing of they're amazing.

You want them to be that. You don't need them to, you know, and if Sinatra was singing. Yeah, you want to hear Summer Wind. Yeah. Yeah. But I do think they'd get back the documentary kind of couch Paul.

In a better light. I think there's a little bit more understanding because he could sing all the harmonies, he could play all the instruments, and he could write songs. So it makes sense, as you might say, fingerprints would be... He'd be collaborating with Ringo. And I used to do that as a joke impression. So the guy goes down there and he goes, he's walking along. And then he's doing it and get back to George Harrison. And so the boy genius kind of thing. And Lennon was off on his own journey at that point. And also...

uh that in the concert now peter jackson gave him yeah a clip so he could sing with leaden yes uh why is that so you realize how young leaden was i know he's just 28 i know and you just go oh it's heartbreaking yeah and paul was when i was watching on the rooftop when john was doing you know his song don't let me down paul is so engaged

Not cynical at all. And he's doing this incredible baseline and they're smiling and laughing. And for all of us, romantically, because of what they meant to us, we want John and Paul. And for Paul, his favorite part of the thing was them joking around and laughing. Yeah. Because that's what he wants. Yeah, he said that's how we want to be remembered. Yeah.

But, you know, time heals all wounds. Well, don't you have that with the cast that you were with? A thousand percent. We could run into anybody of our time. Also Sandler's in the middle of it churning them out.

Do you know what I mean? And it's always, and you just go, Rob Schneider's living on a couch there, you know. Suddenly he gets into, you know, he gets into it. Yeah, Rob talked about them getting famous. And then all of a sudden we had girlfriends. Yeah. And there was some thing, or who thought of Cantori, the one where I had Victoria's legs over my, who really wrote that?

But you're right. It is like being in the Marines or something. Not literally. No, don't send me letters. But yeah, you see a castmate, even running into Tracy Morgan, he goes, hey, alum. There's a esprit de corps. I also think, I think Bill Murray said it once, you just can't explain what it's like being out there looking into the eyes of somebody else who's in that same scene that it's maybe not working.

Or maybe it's working way, way better. Or working way better than you thought. The sparkle, just that contact of being in that heightened reality with that level of intensity, you can't really explain. And I'm sure pro athletes have that. I think it's, you know, dancers have it. Which is another great thing about the show is that you started having non-performers come

host the show. I guess you had pro athletes in the 70s, but that's a reality show in itself. If the pro athlete is bombing or killing, it's just a pro... Michael Jordan's going to try to be a sketch player. Fran Tarkenton was in the 70s. But also, I had Ralph Nader. I had a lot of people that I just admired. And so, Ralph Nader, for his entrance, he was getting off the elevator on 8. And I said,

I think if you're eating a hot dog, that will help. That will help. Because he was so... He said, but I don't eat hot dogs. I know, I know. That's why I think it'll work. It's part of the... Because he's sort of startling. The ultimate straight man. And he got the laugh. And it was like...

He lit up. It's exciting. Yeah. It's ridiculous. They compete. I mean, Peyton Manning, I mean, they give each other their like- Bill Russell. Oh, he had one. Yeah. He was fantastic. I was a huge fan. But it was just like you could call people and they'd say, okay. I didn't even know Bill Russell. You didn't know who watched the show because we were mostly in 8H. And then you go, oh, they're watching. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And Wayne Gretzky-

It was so charming. I had – Broderick Crawford was in some FBI movie. Oh, yeah. The Broderick Crawford? And I go – I called him and I said – he was living in Ohio. And I called him and I said, we're doing this show. And his coach said, yeah, I think I know it. Yeah. So you'd have to be here on the Monday and, you know, it would be this. And I'm trying to reassure a man who does not need to be reassured. And he said, all right, send me the ticket.

Send me the ticket for the plane ticket? An airplane. An airplane, you know? What I'm getting at is people just volunteered to come, you know, from Robert Mitchum.

Charlton Heston. Robert Mitchum had one of my favorite monologue lines. Yes. About live and it's so dangerous and you don't know what could go wrong. And he said, I thought, what's the worst that could happen? I won't get that 119th movie. And he landed it perfect. And he was so old school. He had a half gallon of Jack Daniels in his dressing room. He's an old fashioned movie star. Yeah. Incredible to be around. Walken had that too. Walken is magic. Yeah. Walken is...

That, you know, with Cowbell, I think I was just there doing a guest shot and that thing, hearing Walken come out, and even more Cowbell. I mean, it was so, the cast, I mean, I know that Will had done it before, but once you got Walken and then Will, that's why it's just iconic. Yeah, no, and also the Continental, which he used to do, was an actual show that he would see.

It was a local New York 15-minute show where this guy was on, and he wanted to do it. So he knew it perfectly. God, he was good at that. And that single camera fall. Yeah, with like a white glove on. Do you remember Bear Suits Are Funny and Bears As Well?

Is that a fake story? Well, it was Christopher Walken at the meeting. Yeah. And we all went around pitching him and he's kind of staring up in Christopher Walken. And then you said, Chris. And I remember him saying this in specific. He just said non sequitur, bear suits are funny and bears as well. Bear suits are funny. And then he thought, and bears as well. I just thought that was the greatest non sequitur. And Lauren probably goes, write it up.

Ride it up. Let's put you in a bear suit. But that was the thrill of being around him. He was such a special. Yeah, there were a lot of people that you were either surprised or couldn't wait to meet or whatever. And John Goodman could do no wrong. Alec Baldwin was like a- My third show was Alec's first show. And that was the Green Hillie. And it was, he did the mimic. He did all these- One of the things that I love- It's great. But this is a Waynes World thing, which you'll remember. I'll tune in. He was doing Green Hillie.

Green Hillie. I remember Green Hillie. You guys were in the conference room waiting to see me about something. And Franken was there waiting. And I can't remember what I was doing, but Franken said out loud, can you imagine what it would be like if we had a really good looking guy in the cast? Oh, I remember this one. Oh, boy. Yeah. That would not go over. Both Dana and Mike were like,

We looked at each other. Well, I thought Mike was more tame, but maybe I was too. I never considered, I mean, I didn't have a chin. I can't be, I have a limit on how good looking I can be without a chin. Now I've got this, the ladies like me. Oh, he got up for an Emmy for that first show. Alec was kidding. Every sketch, and it was, he came out of Hunt for Red October, and I was just like, I went into the meeting going, oh, this guy's a movie star. Like, I was new. Oh, yeah. And I remember, did I interrupt you just then? Victoria would say,

The second time Alec came in, non sequitur, Victoria, like on a Tuesday. I'm not going to do it again. Not this week. I'm not going to. And I go, what are you going to do? I'm not going to fall with him. I'm not going to.

in love with him and then by Friday I fell in love with him but he just gets these eyes and you know he was just he was a stud but there was so many home run hitters on that when I got there and all the writing and the smuggles and handies and we talk about it all the time but it was just hard to Lauren actually hung in there with me because it took a while to get my footing I was trying to write and trying to write for you it's hard to write for other people

I was just a stand-up, so it's just to get it going and then got a little Hollywood Minute, then got some stuff. And it just, thank God, got in there because it took me longer than most. Yeah, because one, he was in there too. Yeah, this Rick? So you were going to get those parts. Believe me, let's go through my diary. I'll show you. David would sit behind me and Lorimer would say, David's on deck. David? David?

Ready? Dana looks tired. You're like, no, no. I'd look back. I've been reading something from Huxley's. David's ready whenever you're ready to go. David, you were funny the first day I met you. Truly. Thank you. There was never a moment where I didn't think it was going to work. Yeah. And your last two years. I'm often wrong, but that time I was. Have you seen cast members? I mean, there's so many that audition. I mean, you couldn't say, I guess, if you felt like someone you missed on or someone. I'm sure there's some that just obviously get famous later. I think what happens is if there's no slot-

Do you know what I mean? Yeah. We don't think of that. If somebody does kind of what you do, then it's really hard. Actually, I think Nick Kroll, we talked to him and he auditioned and he was, the first one that made sense to me where he goes, they had me. Because they had every move I do

And there's just, I'm an extra. So I'm an extra guy. Well, he looked at Adam Sandberg and Bill Hader and he locked him off and he goes, and we talked about this. It wasn't personal. It was just those. Three years earlier, it would have worked three years later. But he was like, even he knew what he was like. I mean, really, really funny. So that's just the way it is there. And when we're auditioning, we don't think that. We're just saying, oh, we want to be on and.

When Rob and I came on, kind of writer performers or maybe just writers. I mean, no one tells anybody anything. So Bernie just said, just go there. And also Rob was doing making copies. Oh, yeah. And somehow that just caught on. Oh, yeah. And you don't know why it catches on. Yeah. And then you run it into the ground. And then we run it into the ground.

It's just the catchphrase. The jealousy hit an all-time high when Sting came on looking like a stud and then we're stinging like a ding dong. And then he go, you want to be in copy machine? He's like, yeah. I'm like, God damn. So it just, you have to sit on sidelines and go, good job. And you go, what am I doing here? It's like,

It's tough. Making copies. Yeah, but you know what? You can't argue it. It's funny. It was original. Yeah. No, no. Rob has a musical talent. Rob is a great writer too. He's great. He's musical and he can write. It was so fun to be around these movie stars, directors,

that are nervous and scared about going in or musicians or yeah or Sting I remember we were doing the elevator sketch and he's in we're in between he goes how's my hair how's my hair he's asking me you know it's like and they're really vulnerable and they got the you know I told Michael Jordan if you space out just read it off the card it's a very fascinating part of this they're just flailing they don't know what to do they're scared and

If you get to talk to them, they don't know that we're lowly writers. They're like, what do I do here? And I'm like, are you talking to me? I don't know what the fuck's going on. Jeremy Irons. I remember his show. Hello. Was Saturday, but the Oscars were the Sunday. And he was nominated for Best Actor. Oh, wow. And I knew him from a play he'd done with Mike Nichols. And, you know, he was a great actor.

Obviously. Yeah. And they were doing a Sherlock Holmes sketch. I won't name the writer, but they're like in there teaching him an English accent. Right. You know, like, no, no, it's more this. And you just go, you know, and you just go, well, you know, he's, he wasn't best actor. Yeah. But you just go-

But the passion and blindness of comedy writers. Yeah. Do you know what I mean? Of like, no, you don't get it. It's like this. And so confident. But performers have witnessed and felt death out there. Yes. So they never are confident because they actually know the job. But writers are like, no.

Come on. And I remember George Meyer when he was on the show. Showtime. And he would just – you'd sort of see himself throwing his body against the wall at Dress for Heros when someone blew a line. And that's why animation works better because they do exactly what they're told. But performers can either give you that exhilaration of like they took it off the paper and now it's this other thing.

that will always be that. Yeah. As opposed to you got to laugh at the end of the lot, you know. I think I was doing a courtroom thing as Johnny Carson, as Johnny Cochran or something and Smigel had written it and he's putting all these birds and things on me. Like, and it's five, four, three, and it's a cockatoo. I go, Robert, enough. I gotta do this thing, you know. Come on. Robert is relentless that way. Yeah. Which we love him for. Yeah. And he wants to be performing. Yeah.

Oh, he loves to perform. Yeah. But we had some great collaborations together. He was good with rhythms and, you know. Yeah. So this new season. Uh-huh. Excited. How is your – I mean, you're pulling up your socks. You're feeling good? You're just eyes wide open? I think we – you know, it was –

You know, we ended the season with goodbyes, you know, particularly Kate. Actually said it, yeah. And Pete. And so dealing with that,

It just had that valedictory thing, which we did with Christian Wig as well. We've done it a bunch of times. Yeah. And you just slipped out of the dead of night. I bring it on Bernie. You got to go now, kid. Or you'll never go. No, I don't know why I did that. You know, a lot of people on this, just anecdotally, without naming names, kind of like, why did I leave? Because some of them left voluntarily. Yeah. And why was I so angry? Yeah.

And what was I thinking? And for me personally, I had so many inputs coming at me. I got too hot, too big. It's like Mickey Rooney in the Twilight Zone because of Wayne's World and all the political stuff. So I was sort of lost. But yeah. But I was envious and thought it was sweet when people got a little send off. It's sweet. Yeah. And also, I think there's something about it can't be everything, the show.

And it is for so long. But if you're ever going to leave, you know, and so... You have to leave at some point. Yeah. Except for Keenan. But it's also that you're never going to feel that intensity of that because it's its own sport. Do you know what I mean? And you're in holiday. It's never as hard. Yeah. I went to a sitcom and it was great people, great actors. And I go...

This is just not the same. It's just not as tough. And people writing for me and I go, this is unbelievable. And also it's all, SNL is all risk. You know, like there's no safety net and there's also no,

Guaranteed there's going to be work on air. Or you're going to be on. No. Like you're walking through the hallway and it's like 20 to 1 and they go, and you're in your outfit and they go, Gap Girls is cut. You can't do it on the air? And you're in the dress. I already made it this far. Go back to your rooms immediately. Yeah. Anything that's cut on it, that's the tough. Because that's, again, there's no guarantees. Now we tend to play some of those.

Oh, yeah. I guess you guys play dress or you can play. Well, doesn't Saturday Night Live, I think I read this, gets like, I don't know, almost 2 billion YouTube views. Isn't it number one? YouTube foreign is huge. It must be just huge. And what's happened is Lewis Hamilton, the race car driver, was at a party last season. And he said, well, I grew up watching the show. And I go, you're in England. How do you watch the show? You forget that it's...

It's all online and people... And then I think when they see the contemporary stuff, then they go back and look at the...

You know, the shows from... Yeah. And there was a period about 15 years ago when writers coming in who had not been alive for the first five or 10 years, we had a server where they could just go on. So sometimes people would watch two or three shows on Tuesday night before they started. But I'll use an example. I'll say, well, I think we did that with Bill Murray. And then now I look out into a room of like...

All right. I'm talking about 45 years ago. So it's a... I think Peacock probably has all the old ones, maybe. It's all... Everyone has it on their laptop. I mean, every sketch, right? Because when I was there meeting John Mulaney and Bill Hader, I'm like, oh, what do you guys want to do? They go, we like Mickey Rooney. When I did Mickey Rooney, you're like, really? And they brought it up immediately. And Bill...

You know, when I've talked to Bill somewhat seriously about his time there, he was frightened. He talked about the panic attacks. Yeah, and I go, it's so interesting because I'm pretty good at reading that stuff. Yeah. But he was so good on air and so original. I mean, he auditioned with Vincent Price. Yes. Who does that?

And James Mason. Now, they were in my childhood. I don't know how we get it. And things got to Oklahoma later. But it was just so original and right away. Do you know what I mean? And Vinnie Baderchi and all of that stuff. And you go-

Such an original comedy voice. Yeah. You know, we know what else he can do, but he was truly funny. So good to have a voice on that. Oh, yeah, his rhythms. And the Vincent Price thing, it didn't even matter if you knew Vincent Price, just that his party's being ruined and he's being very... Trying to pull it together. Well, okay, thank you. And it was Toadie Fields. I don't know who was coming to the room. Toadie Fields. Toadie Fields. But he said he was just, you know, almost in tears in the bathroom on 8H. Yeah. You know? I had... You could...

If anyone wanted to see church chat, my hand was drenched in sweat. Yeah. You know? There's a lot of controlling- Of course. Adrenal- And you don't know. Five seconds before, you still don't know whether it's going to work or whether- But there is that thing of like it brings out the best in you. And when you win-

You really can feel it. Well, you can't. There's nothing like the first big laugh to relax you. You're just not relaxed. And the very first time I said, well, isn't that special? I got such a big laugh. I finally went, ah. But also, there's a period...

in which they like, you know, you probably have three or four years where they just get a laugh at whatever you do because they think you know more than they do. And they're just so excited to see you. And that's been happening for the last 10 years or so. You just kind of feel in the room. And I'm going, I don't think that's going to play. And they go, no, of course it's going to play. It's these guys. It's those people doing it.

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That's $50 off with CodeFly at BlueNile.com. BlueNile.com. There was once when we were in the Monday meeting and I thought, I don't know if we had like a dry spell, but I was in the Monday meeting and the hosts who shall remain nameless, but I go, I think Mike and Dana are more famous than the host. And you know, the cast gets so big sometimes like that and they're so well-known. And we always, I mean, you always have,

To this day, huge hosts and great people that come in from all areas. And Kim Kardashian did a great job, and that was sort of out of the blue. And just that's great that you keep doing that, and something's working there where, A, they all want to do it still and get that one thing because they hear about it. And they all walk away going, it went too fast, and it was too great. And if I do it again, I know what I'm doing this time. But also hosting.

everybody, you know, there's 150 people. They're all there to make you look good. So you're the center of it. It's just a different experience. Unless you're Steven Seagal, you believe that. Steven Seagal, my favorite host. So one day, you know, like you guys started, which was kind of interesting, having the women play men because that wasn't happening. Yeah. And that just sort of happened organically and Kate McGinnon did a lot of men and

Was that just sort of happened? You went with it? It's just a new flavor? I mean, if you're me, you're always going to go with the funniest take. So gender isn't the issue. It's just like who's got that voice? Well, Kate had the audience in the palm of her hand. And I think Melissa McCarthy played Sean Spicer. Yeah, yeah. She played Sean Spicer. Trump was furious about it. Oh, really? Yeah. Because it's like they're having a woman play you.

Oh, wow. Very old, old fashioned maleness. I think at some point he liked what Alec was doing. He did? No, I think at the beginning, maybe. The first five seconds? Yeah.

Well, it was just unique because we knew that Alec obviously didn't favor his politics. And then he started to not like Alec and it was a public thing. And before it was sort of hidden if Daryl Hammond's doing Al Gore, no one really knows his politics or whatever. So that was a new kind of flavor as well. Yeah. And also we did things that we wouldn't do now, you know, with John Goodman playing Linda Tripp or whatever, you know, like, so it was just, you know, and I think we,

Standards and boundaries change. Yeah. Things that you could do. Franken did a- Franken always stretched the envelope. Yeah. I think it was with Garrett Morris and Julian Bond. It was a black talk show, and it had a line about that light-skinned black people are

you know, smarter than Dark. Oh God. It's Frankenstein. Hello, Frankenstein. Very hello. You know, but what I'm getting at is we could then, there was no malice in it. It was just like that thing of what can't you say? Right, in regular TV world. Yeah. I like when anyone gains seven pounds,

the next week Farley was playing them. His job was like, it was always brutal. I used to say this thing about when you guys were filming, because you were up in Toronto and I was down there doing the show and then I'd come up and whatever, but I'd say, and I'd see dailies and you, your way of handling stress was, you know, you'd have a banana and whatever and it'd be like that. And Farley's would just be to continue, you'd lose weight and he'd gain weight.

But the weight in the frame stayed the same. Yeah. It was always a constant. It always looked normal. Yeah. Oh, yeah. We'd go back and forth from Toronto. Yeah. Eric Newman on the flight with us. Yes. Where's his... Are you going to ever write a book, Lorne? Because Meghan Markle did. No. I think the hard part is...

You can't tell the truth or you don't want to bury people. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And also, I think you go, then when you get to be married, did that actually happen? Do you know what I mean? You know, you have to cross-check yourself, too. Well, it's just your memory. Right. I have a good memory. It's not that. Incredible. It's just like, well, what...

Did that actually happen to Tom? 100%. Because Dana and I even would tell stories and we would disagree. And I'm like, God, you're right. And I go, I remembered it this whole time a certain way and it was not. And it just...

that happens like that so you just don't know. Yeah. And that's why they do all that stuff in murder trials. It's like the people swear they saw this person leave and no, they didn't. And you just go and yeah, then they execute you. Yeah. And you go, no way, we found, we figured it out. Oh, I,

And when it comes to taking credit, I think it's a normal human thing to kind of trend your memory toward favoring yourself a little bit. But you want to cross-check it with other people. Am I remembering this right? Like, was there ever a horse on the show or a horse on 8H? Yeah, lots of horses. Because during dinner, I was over in my cubicle arranging things, and I saw Keith Richard walking by himself.

walking up to the horse and he held the horse's head in his hand. He said, look at you. You're a fucking horse. I swear to God, that's what he said. And then he just went back to his dressing room. But I was thinking, did I remember that correctly? There was a horse. The first time we did it was when Mr. Ed died. It was a news story. And Chevy could do Mr. Ed's voice. And so he... Yeah, exactly. Wilbur. And he...

We got the horse in the studio and then he's interviewing the horse in the last interview, you know, and he'd be doing both parts. So when the horse was talking. Talking, he'd be chubby. Chubby, yeah. Must have killed. Chubby, whatever. Horses, giraffes. We had. Monkeys. We had a camel about four years ago. No, maybe longer now.

And it got off. Every camel works at Christmas. It's not like you can get a hold of a camel. They all work. The manger thing. So there was one, they lied about how big it was. Kenny Amon was like, wow. They're scary. Kenny Amon. Hey, David. So he came off the elevator and then the hump, you can call it a hump, right? Yeah. I think so. The hump got stuck in the tiles.

Because it was so tall. Of the ceiling. Yeah. So it was just stuck. There was no getting it there. And then we're going, but we're on the air. We have to get. Yeah. So I think they got a donkey and made it look like a camel. It was like that kind of thing. Yeah, interesting.

It's an amazing show. Did Bill Murray punch Chevy or is that a fake story from the old days? They got into a fight. They were. And John, I think, provoked it a little bit. I love John. It was probably my mistake because I was bringing Chevy back to host. But it was a season and a half after he left, which just made sense. The musical guest on that show was the very young Billy Joel. Oh.

And they got into a skirmish just in front, you know, by the page desk. And then Jeff had to come out and do the monologue. Oh, wow. So it was like... Both six foot four, basically. And it was just a... The show was sort of white hot. And it was John...

always felt in lemmings which is the time they'd worked together before the show john was the star and chevy was not and so and was like sort of third billing and chris you know uh is involved in that show too chris guest and you're going to go so there was already like this is how we see you and then uh and then chevy but chevy was such a monster also because he said his name

You don't want to update. Right. I'm Chevy Chase and you're not. Yeah. Great. Yeah. Yeah. Well, and he's a big dude. Great looking dude. Movie star by then. Right.

Coming back after. I always tell people when I run into, we're going to have Chevy on the podcast. I try to compliment him, but sometimes he doesn't know. He's a little, but I, I tell people, if you want to know how great he was, is as a film actor, look at Caddyshack where Bill Murray is in his full prime groundsman character with the mouth off to the side. And they're together going through this scene and Chevy does his,

Buster Keaton or whatever you want to call how still his face was and then his physicality. It's like a master class in comic film acting. He gets beat up a lot.

And people forget what a great movie actor and star, you know. I mean, just... It's a thing. It was like such a huge thing. Yeah. You know, by the end of the first season. And it was like way too much to handle. And it became particularly hard for he and I because we wrote together. And so we were very close. And so it was...

heading in two different directions. And then he became a movie star. Sure he'd want to come back. But then saying, ever since he kind of, even when he would come to host, he'd say, don't leave too soon. He felt, he wished he'd done more seasons because that was that part. It was a, yeah. Emotionally, he wasn't ready to leave. And also, he was, that other thing, really proud of what we'd done. Yeah. With the show. And then he had to see it still be huge and grow with the Blues Brothers and Lorraine. And when, listen, when,

At the end of the first season, I won three Emmy Awards, one for Lily Tomlin and Richard Pryor. I think I'd done the year before. Nice. And Richard Pryor, who I'd worked with, we had dinner at Dantana's. So you know we were feeling pretty good about ourselves. And he was offered a three-picture deal at Universal. And he said, this is what we wanted.

Do you know what I mean? Comedians did not get movies. Yeah, right. You know, and it was like, and I thought, I've just been through my championship season. It's not going to, I wrote everything I ever wanted to write all, you know, at least twice in that season. So it was like, oh, you could get off stage now and, you know. Wow. And I went, I can't do that. Everybody else has to stay for five years. You know, it was that. But I think that if you'd said to me then that,

I would be still doing it and that I would have found so many other things that were there that I didn't know at the beginning, not part of the original design or whatever. Things that it grew into or that it does or that its influence would be just as strong politically as it is politically.

And keep discovering super talented people and being launched from your show to have careers. Also, they kind of find us now. Yeah. You know?

In the 70s, you had to go out and recruit, but I think people... Yeah, sure. I mean, I liked staying alive because there was a time there, like obviously when you're on, if you missed the show, you had to get the rerun six months later. And if you missed that, you had to catch... It was luckily on the best of in the summer, but there was a time there when...

hadn't seen some of the old ones and then it was on the E! channel and then now you can see it all so it's more people know it's interesting it's like Emma Stone grew up on Best of Gilderadner wow and those sort of best of you know like all those best of you're in them I mean but we stopped doing them because the VCR thing no it wasn't really yeah and they're all on YouTube pretty much but people wore those out I think Kate McKinnon had one of those

One of the last ones probably. Oh, best of? They have like three movies. You know, Dana, I think we have a connection. We've been friends for a long time. And for this episode of Fly on the Wall, we've partnered with eHarmony, which isn't us. eHarmony is a dating app to find someone you can be yourself with. We are not dating. I want to clarify that. But the connection is what you want in a dating partner. Yeah.

Just someone like, if you found someone that listened to this podcast, that's somewhat of a connection. And then you sort of build on that. You want someone with some common ground. Yeah. It's not, it, look, if you want to connect romantically over, you know, super fly or fly on the wall, uh,

It just makes us happy. You don't want to be watching The Godfather and the person next to you goes, this movie sucks. You want to- So dumb. Yeah. You want to connect on all issues and harmonize in life. Similar sensibility, similar sense of humor, and similar sense of sense. I don't like when they watch The Godfather and they're like, everyone in this movie is so old. I'm like, they're 40.

Watch 2001 Space Odyssey. Too much of this movie is in outer space. I don't like it. When do they land? When do they land? Why is that stupid red light acting so silly? Who's friends with a robot? We know dating isn't easy. That's why we partnered with eHarmony because dating is different on eHarmony. They want you to find someone who gets you, someone you can be comfortable with.

Yeah. I mean, the whole idea is you're going to take a compatibility quiz, helps your personality come out in your profile, which makes all the profiles on eHarmony way more interesting and fun to read. So I think this is the goal of dating sites, and I think eHarmony does it great. It's just finding somebody you're compatible with.

So get started today with a compatibility quiz. So you can find some and you can be yourself with. Get Who Gets You on eHarmony. Sign up today. As a Ford owner, there are lots of choices of where you get your vehicle serviced. You can choose to go to their place, the local dealership, your place, home, apartment, condo,

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Or choose mobile service where a technician will come to you and do routine maintenance right on the spot. Both are complimentary and depend on your location. That's ownership built around you. Contact your participating dealer or visit FordService.com for important details and limitations. Well, Lauren, we'll take a 20-minute break. And start the podcast. We just want to thank you for doing this. And you know we didn't talk about anybody dying.

We didn't. There was a lot. Do you want to? No. No, I'm good. I mean, but we were there for a lot of that. A lot of big ones, yeah. Two of my bandmates for sure. Yeah. And I was just at Catalina Island and that's where Phil's ashes are. Do you remember John at the memorial? John Lovitz? Yeah. Kind of. What'd he do? He's...

We just talked about Phil. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, well. But they couldn't have been closer. Yeah. And they couldn't, you know, that sketch, which was a growling sketch that we finally did. Yeah. Yeah. What's the word on the street? What's the word on the street? They were doing the gangster thing so much before we premiered with the first show. Yeah. I remember Dynamite on two and a half. Did they do anything else? It was like, how are you doing? What are you? What are they saying? What do you mean, what are they saying? You know, they just did it spastically. Love it. Still so funny. I see him all the time. And in Three Amigos, I did it with three.

That scene, yeah. That's right. Yeah, but John is, yeah, he's supernaturally funny. Do you see him? Do you see John? I do see John, yeah. I talk to him a lot. He's on the road or he's at a hotel with Jerry, his dog, Jerry Bruckheimer. And, you know, there's only one John. He still is funny and dinner. So you're talking to Lorne. One of the most naturally funny people. He is, really. Where did that come from? People, like, when they see him, they all know him. He looks exactly the same. They all come up.

I love Keenan. He came back to play somebody like three or four years ago. Mm-hmm. At a cold opening. And he destroyed the dress.

And I said, John, you've got to make sure you're on your mark before you go, you know, like that. And he was just off camera. Just slowly off camera. The live audience was going nuts. Oh, heartbreaking. Because he's, it's still all natural. Do you know what I mean? Right. So that's the moment he felt to do it as opposed to three, two, one, get to my spot and then do it? Yeah.

Like Heart Room would have been on camera for sure. Who? Heart Room. Oh, Phil was, I mean, his binder was so meticulous, his office meticulous. He was in so many sketches. And then he would just in between takes or when we're rehearsing, he would just be looking at Evan Rood. I couldn't believe he'd look at something else. He'd look at boats and his plane. He had a wire. He was a renaissance person. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Buzz Mart. Yeah. All right. Well, thanks, buddy. It's been great getting to know you guys. Yes, it's nice to meet you. I really feel like I know you now. No, thank you for doing this, Lorne. Goodbye. Hey, what's up, flies? What's up, fleas? What's up, people that listen? We want to hear from you and your dumb questions. Questions, ask us anything. Anything you want. You can email us at flyonthewallatcadence13.com.

We have a question here. Great. Who will take over for Lorne? How will the show adjust and move forward? 75 people asked this question. Yeah, 75 plus. From the same email. This is the question we get a lot. Okay. I would say we did touch on it. I don't think he's going to want to talk about it because it means retiring. And I don't think anyone wants to retire. I don't know if

Right. He can handle the stress or if he wants to give it away or if people will say, oh, ever since Lauren left, it's just a great excuse to say, oh, the show. We did. And it was kind of a joke, but sort of serious. We offered ourselves up to take over as co-producers and Lauren's eyes got real big and he just went, right. Right. And I said, or we could just take the money and we do nothing.

Just get the credit and then stir that credit and then work at the podcast. And then just see if it does it on its own. I'll say, philosophically off the top of my head, I do think it's tough to replace Lorne because he works in so many invisible ways. And that is the relationship with the bosses. Because I'm, for years, and we touched on this, but I don't- It's very complicated. They're always, when the show's ratings are down, sorry, I had a little nip.

When the show's ratings are down, they want to change it. It's got to be taped. Lauren was so vigilant about keeping it exactly the same. That's why you go back and it's a little bit creepy in there because it's like going back to high school. It's cool. Now, the only thing different now when you go back is all the photos when you walk down that first hall are all so historical because it's every big star doing a big sketch and you're like, whoa, all right here. Yep. All the history of almost 50 years.

So I don't know. You know, there's names. There's Tina Fey. They're perfectly capable if she wanted it. Steve Higgins. There's Higgins. There's Downey. There's who wants the job, who can handle it.

Remember Apatow talked about it? Yeah, he's a producer. I mean, you know, Apatow could do it. Maybe he wouldn't be as close enough to the show so he'd get some resistance, but he obviously knows what he's doing. But Warren took over as such a young man. It feels like it needs young. And yet the show is already adjusting just culturally. It's evolving. You know, when I was on there, it was like six cast members. Now there has to be 20 or 25. 600.

Well, they were 600 for a while. Okay. I'll ask you a question, David. Who would be the biggest surprise you could think of that would take over for Lorne? I have my answer. Let's hear yours. No.

No, they all... The biggest surprise. They're so offensive. Oh, they're offensive? Why are they offensive? Because it sounds like they don't have a good career, if I say their name. Like, it's so funny. Well, no, they're becoming executive producers. Okay, what's yours? Then I'll decide. I'll change. John Levitz. Hello. Line up. I'm producing now. You? You're in the cold opening. Do you know what a cold opening is? It's the beginning. No. Oh, that was my jokey one. Maybe you should try acting. Acting?

So that would be my surprise one. But the truth is nobody knows. It's three years from now. But the 50th is. We did talk about the 50th. And Lorne has not announced his retirement officially at all. No. It just feels like 50 is like, you know, it's halfway to 100. Dana, why are you pushing me out the door? I just want your couch. That's what I told him. He's got popcorn. He's a popcorn guy. Tootsie Rolls.

Well, I guess- We actually don't have an answer for this question. This question's petering out, but we don't like to stop talking. So thank you for asking, and the answer is we don't know. We could have said three, four minutes ago, we don't know. Instead, we're narcissists, and we like the sound of our own voice. So thank you, 75 Plus. Yeah, we want to cram one more ad. All from the same email address. You know who you are. It's Lorne himself. What did they say? Lorne at Lorne.com. Okay, thanks, guys. Thanks, guys.

This has been a podcast presentation of Cadence 13. Please listen, then rate, review, and follow all episodes. Available now for free wherever you get your podcasts. No joke, folks. Fly on the Wall has been a presentation of Cadence 13, executive produced by Dana Carvey and David Spade, Chris Corcoran of Cadence 13, and Charlie Finan of Brillstein Entertainment. The show's lead producer is Greg Holtzman with production and engineering support from Serena Regan and Chris Basil of Cadence 13.