Live From New York: An Uncensored History of Saturday Night Live Read Online Free PDF Page B

very sort of style-based existence with Michael O’Donoghue, which was severely crimped by the fact that he’d quit the Lampoon and we were completely broke. Michael was rather laid low by the whole experience. At one point I had achieved this thing where we had a gig doing restaurant reviews for the Village Voice — every reporter’s dream, right? And free meals. And it was Christmas-time and Michael and I cowrote a review of Luchow’s, this restaurant where Diamond Jim Brady had gone to romance Lillian Russell. It was very Christmassy because it had a giant Christmas tree in the middle of it. Anyway, Michael insisted on putting some reference to Hiroshima and the Nazis into the review. The Village Voice did not go for this, especially in a restaurant review. Michael quit in a huff and we lost the gig. And I was like, “Oh, no.” We were at the bail-out point when Lorne showed up and offered first Michael and then me jobs on Saturday Night Live . And I turned it down because I had sold a book: Titters , the first collection of humor by women. I said, “I can’t do this stupid television show.” And then a friend of mine was like, “Are you crazy? You have to do it.” And thank goodness I did. So then Michael and I were working on it together.
    DICK EBERSOL:
    NBC set up a meeting for eight o’clock in the morning. And Lorne said, “Dick, eight o’clock?!? You know I can’t function at that hour.” I said, “Lorne, it’s breakfast. We’ve got to do it.”
    BERNIE BRILLSTEIN:
    Lorne said, “I can’t get up.” I said, “Lorne, this is the one time I’ll call you and get you up.”
    DICK EBERSOL:
    So he came to this breakfast, I don’t know if he’d even been to bed, and he’s sitting with these two guys who, despite whatever nice things they did for me, I have to give the title of “stiffs.” They’re basically asking if Connie Stevens is going to do the show. Lorne goes into his best BS. When it’s over they say, “Well, he’s awfully young. But okay — you can have him.” The next morning I bring in Ohlmeyer, who’s more akin to their world, and they liked him very much. But Roone would not let Don out of his contract at ABC, and it would be almost two years before NBC got Don away from them.
    HERBERT SCHLOSSER:
    I wanted to do the show live if possible, and I wanted to do it in New York City, because New York had lost all of its entertainment shows. Everything had moved to Burbank. Even Carson had moved to Burbank. Which left a void in 30 Rock. I originally thought it should be two hours and so forth. But the research department was very conservative. Nobody seemed to be enthusiastic at the meeting.
    Now I’d had an experience with the Tomorrow show, which I didn’t want to repeat. I had wanted to put it on, and we went through the procedure as you should of having a financial analysis and a research analysis and so forth, but I never could get an answer from my own network people.
    So I was talking to Julian Goodman, who was the chairman of NBC, about my frustration with my ideas for Saturday night, and he said to me, “You should just call Les Brown” — the reporter from Variety . “Have lunch with him and just tell him you’re putting the show on.” So I did. And it was in Variety a couple days later. Sure enough, the wheels started moving more rapidly.
    DICK EBERSOL:
    I would go to the Chateau Marmont, where Lorne lived, and basically for nine or ten days, between going out to dinner and all this stuff, we worked out a loose thing of what this show is going to be. It’s going to be a repertory company of seven, and a writing staff and fake commercials and all that.
    BERNIE BRILLSTEIN:
    About this time, Lorne invited me to his birthday party — his thirtieth, I think — the only party ever held in the lobby of the Chateau Marmont, where they all used to stay. So the party supposedly starts at nine. I was the old man of the group, so I arrive at nine-thirty. And there’s not