Book of Jason!
From March, 1998 - My Trip to SNL
My Trip to Saturday Night Live
Sunday, March 15th, 1998 @ 10pm... flew home through a snow storm, the worst kind of weather to fly in.
Visiting New York is always fun. Never a vacation; have to spend time with the family. *sigh* I did get to see my sister dance. She has a MFA from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts and is finally dancing with enough troupes that she doesn't have to wait tables anymore. She's good. The last time I saw her actually dance was her first year at Queens College about 8 years ago and things have changed a great deal. She's with the Michael Mao Dancers and some other group that I can't remember right now.
Anyhow, that was a great show. I think Joan Lunden was sitting in front of me, but I was too chicken to ask her.
Anyway, I'm pretty sure you don't want to read the Chin Family reunion minutes, so let's pick up the story on Saturday afternoon (1:50pm) when I arrived at 50 West 50th, the NBC Studios.
I had taken the official NBC Studio tour almost a decade ago and I remembered where the security desk was. The Security desk guards a bank of elevators that lead to all of the NBC shows within that building (Late Night with Conan O'Brian, Later, The Rosie O'Donnell Show, Saturday Night Live, and the Today show is done right across the street) ("Natural Born Killers" is on Showtime right now and ImprovOlympic and Second City veteran Jimmy Carrane just had his scene with Tommy Lee Jones (Jimmy plays a security guard)). Directly across from the guards desk is the NBC souvenir shop. I walked past a whole slew of tourists milling about the shop and waiting for tours and approached the desk.
"I'm Jason Chin. I'm on the visitor list for SNL." "Yessir, we know." and then they let me in. That was very cool.
I took the elevator to the 8th floor (Studio 8H). Exiting the elevator Inoticed the distinct lack of protocol. No security whatsoever. I walked down the hallway and I noticed that apparently the Rosie O'Donnell show is shot on the same floor as SNL. On the right side of the hallway were framed photos of past scenes from SNL and on the left side were framed photos of Rosie and her guests. At the end of the hallway was a monitor with the run-through being patched through and a desk with about 5 NBC pages kinda lounging about. I asked if they knew where Tina Fey was. The lead gal picked up the phone and called the Writers Room. Tina was actually right behind me down a different hallway.
Tina showed me around the area. She walked me out to the floor, where they were running through some stuff. There were giant trays of chips, fruit, muffins, and other goodies. Tina said that I had arrived just in time; they were about to run through the only scene that she had in the show that week; a Barbara Walters Oscar thing. I was stunned by the amount of people running around the stages. There were about 30 something techs and proppeople and others running around besides writers, actors, stage managers, and various hangers-on (like me!). The entire stage is amazingly small. Maybe slightly more than 100 yards x 50 yards. Ingenious with their use of space, redundant and break-away sets; I learned a few tricks there.
The Barbara Walters scene was very good; some really funny digs at the Oscars as well as Babs herself. Host Julianne Moore played Kate Winslet. I was about 10 feet away from the Oscar nominated actress. Probably as beautiful and sexy in real-life as on the screen. I actually met her later and she was really nice. Boy, did she have some nice hair. Embattled cast member, Norm Macdonald showed up to rehearse his bit as Burt Reynolds to a smattering of applause from crew members. His only part in the show, it was very indicative of his current situation.
The director, Beth Macarthy, is in the control room which is hidden away from the stages. She can only see what's going on through the cameras and occassionally gives directions via a microphone. She steps out several times during the run-through to speak personally with actors and crew.
Sign on a pile of end-tables and vases, and stuff: "Props. Keepa You Hands Off"
I tried my best to keep out of everyone's way, which was pretty easy. There were lots of people wandering around and no one had any idea of who I was. I had on a nice shirt and the khakis and I had a small pad of paper was taking notes. Some one came up to me and said that I would probably need a running order and a map of where scenes were going to be. I will attempt to scan them into the website as soon as possible. If you can help me with that, let me know. Tina had tons to do, so I was pretty much by myself for most of the day. She came and checked up on me periodically.
At one point we were talking about the rehearsal running order and she introduced me to Ana Gasteyer (my favorite on the show right now). Ana was great and the three of us actually had a good conversation. I complimented Ana on her Celine Dion imitation and she said that apparently people really hate her (Celine) because people keep coming up to her and saying that they hate her (Celine). She's my favorite and that was cool to meet her. She and Tina went off and then I went to get some coffee and I met Don Pardo! He was, literally, smaller than I thought he would be. Here's how the rest of the day went:
- run-through from around 1pm to about 5pm and then a break for dinner.
- at 8pm there's a dress rehearsal in front of an audience. This show runs about 2 hours, with just about every scene from that week. Depending on audience reaction, scenes get cut or make it to the 11:30 broadcast. Lorne Michaels usually shows up on Mondays and decides what scenes need to be developed and then shows up again on Saturday for the dress rehearsal. All the writers have to sit with Lorne during the dress rehearsal and he makes edits and gives notes for scenes.
- the rehearsal ends around 10pm and the writers, actors, cue card team, director and a ton of others meet and work furiously on the myriad of changes that have to be done in an hour and a half. The drastic changes in line-up and actual scene content were incredible. Everything from moving a monologue from Weekend Update to the show Cold Start to changing a poster in the background is done in 90 minutes.
- the studio audience is seated around 10:45pm. At 11:00 Don Pardo welcomes the audience and introduces Jim Breuer, who does about 10 minutes before introducing Colin Quinn. Having Quinn warmup the audience is brillant. The audience doesn't really know him and this gives him an excellent opportunity to win the audience over. 11:29pm..the show starts!
Alright. That's enough for now. I have more to tell, of course, but I gotta spread it out.... besides I'm tired and I have airplane all over me. Coming up...my adventures in Times Square... what got cut from the show...and the post-show party! If you have questions, let me know..
END OF LINE.
"What a joint. What a fuckin' joint. Three dollar bills all around." - disgruntled SNL stagehand.
"I'm going to be where ever the cuecards are." - Lorne Michaels, accepting some stage direction.
"I'm going to pop outta this thing!" - Julianne Moore, on her opening monologue dress (which she ended up wearing anyway.)
UPDATED: MARCH 16TH, 1998...
The dress rehearsal for SNL contained 5 scenes and one song (by the Backstreet Boys) that were eventually cut before broadcast. Three characters, who were originally a part of a scene that did make the broadcast show, were excised as well.
The cuts were:
1- the original Cold Start. At dress rehearsal, the Cold Start was Daryl Hammond playing himself when he is supeaned ( alright, screw you, I just spent 11 minutes trying to look up sa-peen-naed) by Kenneth Starr (played by Will Farrel). Lorne Michaels was in that version as well. Eventually, the entire thing was scrapped and a monologue by Hammond / Clinton from Weekend Update was bumped all the way to the Cold Start.
2- Daryl Hammond played Robin Williams in the Barbara Walters sketch and
that character was cut.
3- "Oscar Welcome" - a scene with Julianne Moore and Tim Meadows was cut completely. It had them as event workers at the Oscars putting up a sign that read, "Welcome Phonies"
4- A character played by Chris Kattan called "Zip Zing" was cut from Weekend Update.
5- A character played by Jim Breuer called "Russell Putnam", who stops Julianne Moore (ala Ellen Cleghorne's NBC Page character) between scenes, was cut.
6- "Cousins" - with Tim Meadows and Tracy Morgan as wacky cousins was cut. Tim was the straight guy with a Masters in Finance and Tracy was the fast-street-talking would-be singer who hits Tim up for some money. A wedding scene, Julianne Moore played Tracy's girlfriend and Molly Shannon played Tim's.
7- "Family Picnic" - Will Farrell and Daryl Hammond as crazy father and son rednecks on a porch during a family reunion. There were about 10 kids there all day, including for Dress Rehearsal, and then the scene got cut. Ana Gasteyer played the violin in that scene.
8- For some reason, an old commerical "Ass Jet Copier" was used as a bumper during Dress Rehearsal.
9- the Backstreet Boys performed twice for the Dress, but only once for the actual broadcast. (During the actual broadcast, a great share of the audience was laughing aloud at the cheesy choreography and I noticed that the audience audio was cut
completely from broadcast.)
COMING UP: THE POST-SHOW PARTY.
The Post Show Party
After the broadcast, the lovely Bina Martin and I waited in front of the studio for Tina Fey. Tina, of course, did the whole Chicago thang; ImprovOlympic, Second City Mainstage (in record time actually. I saw her Level 5 show just 3 1/2 years ago) and now writer (and eventually performer, should there be justice in telebision land) for Saturday Night Live.
We all headed over to a restaurant/bar called Houston's. The entire back section of the restaurant was reserved for SNL; you had to be on this enormous list to get in... thankfully, we were there with Ms. Fey. We got seated at a booth and we (Bina and
I) told Tina that she needn't "babysit" us for the entire evening. My favorite part was when I went to the Men's Room, Tina checked with Bina to see if she (B) knew me well enough to be left alone with me. That was kinda funny. Bina and I were on a team at IO for almost a year together.... We knew that Tina would want to visit with her work folks since they were taking a two week vacation. Also, Tina wanted to go rap with the all-together terrific Julianne Moore. She did too.
Lorne Micheals eventually showed up. Almost all of the cast was there and some of the Backstreet Boys. One of the B-Boys brought a date, Debbie Gibson! Debs is playing Beauty in the Broadway production of "Beauty & the Beast." Her hair was
dark brown and in pigtails. Still filled with Electric Youth. Ex-SNL cast member, Jay Mohr showed up during the last few scenes of the show and came to the party. Tim Meadows was in a really good mood (and he should have been. After almost a decade he has a recurring character and that night's show was the best Ladies' Man, yet).
You know how sometimes you see Molly Shannon and Cheri Oteri and some of the other female cast members in really snazzy dresses? Well, they rummage through the wardrobe earlier in the day and choose fancy dresses for that night's "Good Nights."
They can borrow them for the post-show party but have to return them on Monday. Molly had on a cool silver, metally, flapper's type outfit. She looked gangbusters.
Someone e-mailed me asking about the Robert Smiegle cartoon that ran during the show. The ending of the "Schoolroom Rock" song referred to the horrible Pierce Brosnan-like treatment of Norm MacDonald and Lorne Micheals. The song was about Conspiracies and how corporations control all the TV networks. If you examine the lyrics, it really wasn't that harsh...it pretty much said that Norm was asked to leave for making too many OJ jokes, but Lorne overrode them ,but not to trust Lorne because he went to High School with Marion Barry whatever that last bit means. As far as I could tell, there was no real dispute over it. I was in the Writers Room when it first ran and no one even blinked an eye or said anything either way. I met Smiegle before the broadcast and told him that I liked the Dana Carvey show and that evening's cartoon. I told him that it was smart and that in itself was a television rarity and he just kinda shrugged. Nice enough guy though. We gabbed about Jon Glaser and Bill Chott, who both worked for SC and then on the Dana Carvey show.
One of the writers told me that the party was relatively lame compared to previous parties. It was mostly just people sitting around in different booths. Like the world's biggest coincidence that everyone knew each other. Julianne Moore was there for quite some time gabbing with folks. I spoke again with Ana Gasteyer. She said that she felt like we had met before. That means she wanted me, right? Right? She's great. Best one on the show. Check out those NPR scenes. Plus, she plays the fiddle. Mm,
fiddle-playing smart funny gal.... Met Tina's office partner, another writer by the name of Mike Something ( my Ma programmed the VCR incorrectly and the tape cuts off the last 10 minutes). He wrote the movie "Coffee Talk" with Mike Meyers that never got made and is probably right now with Mr. Meyers working on Austin Powers 2 ( I know the plot! I know the plot!)
The party is a semi-official function. There are specially made one sheet menus for food and drink specials, but it's all just discounted, not comped. I would imagine that would get expensive after awhile anyway. Bina and I cut outta there around 3:30 am. The party was winding down anyway. When I left, Lorne Michaels, Ana, and Molly Shannon and an unidentified young man were laughing in a corner booth.
So that's my trip. I learned alot and, man, am I grateful to Ms. Fey for providing me with the opportunity to learn.
So, it's been a great week, the cast was terrific, thanks to the Backstreet Boys! Yay! (clapping hands) Lolly! Kieran! Go to bed! Good Night, everyone!!!
